Posted on 06/22/2015 3:11:18 AM PDT by markomalley
The wait is almost over for what could be the last big legal threat to ObamaCare.
Court-watchers are working themselves into a frenzy awaiting a decision on King v. Burwell, one of the most-anticipated cases of the year.
On opinion days, dozens of reporters are packing into the court or swarming the steps outside, while nearly 10,000 people tune into SCOTUSblog for live updates. False reports attempting to predict the timing of the decision have only further fueled the hype.
Across Capitol Hill, Republicans in the House and Senate briefed their members for the first time on Wednesday, trying to calm fears about what could happen to the 6.4 million people whose ObamaCare subsidies are at stake in the case.
Some of K Street’s biggest lobby firms are drafting “pre-decision” memos and briefing clients even outside of the healthcare realm about how they could be hit by a ruling.
Democrats are also getting nervous.
On the same afternoon as the Republican meetings, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell privately met with members of the New Democrats Coalition on Wednesday to talk about the case.
"In my state of Georgia, 500,000 people would lose their insurance — 8 or 9 million people across the country. And all [states] have to do is put the exchanges in place,” Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) said as he left the closed-door meeting.
A spokeswoman for the coalition’s chairman, Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), said she couldn’t discuss details, but confirmed the administration’s response to the case was the “main topic of discussion.”
The growing anticipation surrounding King v. Burwell exploded shortly after midnight Wednesday, when news first GOP leaders would begin briefing rank-and-file members about the case.
The meetings took place in separate corners of the Capitol a few hours apart, and both drew unusually large scrums of reporters.
Facing a barrage of questions after the Senate’s lunch-time discussion, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo..) allowed a half-dozen reporters to cram into his elevator, where Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had already stepped inside.
“Easy, easy,” Cruz said as he was backed into the corner.
“This is an unusual situation isn’t it? We have a presidential candidate in here!” Barrasso exclaimed. He then allowed the gaggle to follow him onto the subway beneath the Capitol Dome and back to his Dirksen Building office, more questions along the way.
Republicans have spent four months quietly crafting contingency plans for King v. Burwell. While the case drew some attention during oral arguments in March, the hype is approaching new heights with just a few days left of court decisions this summer.
This week’s meetings marked the first time that most members heard details about those plans.
Some members, including Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), were blunt in their assessment. When asked separately whether the party had reached a consensus about the plan, both flatly replied, “No.” Graham laughed.
Plans in the House appear to be coming along more smoothly. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the GOP’s point man for the case, presented a more complete proposal that would give block grants to states that want them. The rest could decide to scrap the healthcare law altogether.
But even that plan sparked fireworks from the House’s more conservative members. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) rolled out a bill the next day that would prevent Congress from enacting any extension of the subsidies.
The spotlight stayed on King v. Burwell on Thursday as the Supreme Court release its latest round of opinions.
The day before, CNBC reporter Larry Kudlow tweeted that the case would be released on Thursday, citing “people in the know,” causing a firestorm of speculation.
Despite his “red alert,” none of the five cases that day involved ObamaCare.
With just a few days of opinions left, the Obama administration is also beginning to break its silence.
Burwell and other health officials have been so adamant about refusing to discuss case that senior Republicans like Cornyn have accused of her acting in contempt of Congress.
While Burwell’s department has given no official guidance to the three-dozen states that could lose their subsidies, the administration is starting to show its hand.
This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gave permission for two states to move ahead with backup plans to save their subsidies, which would involve launching their own ObamaCare marketplaces.
A few states, like Florida, Louisiana and Wisconsin, have said they will do nothing to rescue ObamaCare subsidies.
But the vast majority of state leaders are staying quiet about their post-decision strategies, which have been shaped by secret meetings and phone calls with other states over the last few months.
Those concerns are being relayed to the 68 senators and hundreds of representatives whose constituents are at risk of losing their subsidies.
"I just got off the phone with one of our state legislators, trying to get some direction here on how it's going to be enacted,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), who has put forward his own bill to address the King v. Burwell fallout.
“We have to wait for the Supreme Court decision, I mean this may all be moot, I hope not, I hope the Supreme Court rules as the law was actually written,” he said.
In conversations about the case, it’s clear that some lawmakers are getting jumpy.
Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), who leads the House GOP Doctors Caucus, volunteered a dire prediction for his side: “I think it’s going to be 5-4 in favor of the government.”
Link to SCOTUS Blog (unofficial)
Today is the last scheduled day to release opinions, so, unless they ad hoc schedule another day, it's likely that the two big cases will be ruled on today:
Orders are supposed to be issued at 9:30 AM EST. Opinions are supposed to be released starting at 10 AM EST.
That's funny. The reason some states didn't have an exchange was politics, but many states tried for years and still failed. There is no chance of putting a state exchange in place in the remainder of this year. I hope and pray that the republicans have the decency to let this terrible law die.
I believe that just this past week Hawaii shut down their ObamaCare Exchange website.
If a Leftist state like Hawaii gives up there is little hope that any state can get an exchange going in less than a couple of years.
The fix is in.
Obolacare will live forever.
They won’t.
They’ll change the law so states don’t have to setup exchanges to get federal entitlements.
And in the end, Republicans will own it - even though they didn’t give it a single vote originally...
NO ONE SEEMED TO CARE ABOUT THE 8 MILLION WHO LOST THEIR HEALTH CARE THANKS TO OBAMACARE
AND THE 70 MILLION WHO *WILL* LOSE IT NEXT (REMEMBER- IT WAS POSTPONED)
It’s got to be more than 8 million losing it. I can’t afford it anymore, so I didn’t “officially” “lose” it.
We are not being told the true devastation of Obamacare.
There is no fix.
Except the fix we're in.
Either the Republicans vote to bankrupt the treasury and subsidize Obamacare or they permit the Democrats to run on the issue in the upcoming election risking their own reelection.
How many conservatives on these threads believe that the Republicans will do the right thing?
It was 8 million almost immediately- 70 million more projected after the employer mandate became effective, but Odumbass delayed that for one year.
If King-v-Burwell goes the wrong way we should DEMAND 100% implementation of Obamacare- that is the only way to drive home what a disaster it will be- by letting people see it.
My wife and I can no longer ‘afford’ healthcare insurance. It was costing more more than we made each month.
And do you think a single news report will mention that?
I expect the House will pass something, though perhaps not on the first try. This will probably contain some kind of a transitional mechanism which will have to be VERY carefully designed, leading to a clear exit strategy, or it will lead to a conservative revolt. In the Senate, there is a high probability that 51 Republican Senators will be unable to unite around anything at all. About 45 of them will be ready to support something similar to the House plan, but getting to 51 will be difficult.
Then the question is whether the Democrats simply filibuster and defy the GOP to risk a complete collapse of the individual insurance market. This is likely. I wonder if several of the states with Republican governors and legislatures are prepared to step in.
The Republicans gave up any pretense of fiscal conservatism during the presidency of George W. Bush and the associated Congressional leadership of Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist.
The Republicans demonstrated their acquiescence to Obamacare when the House under the leadership of John Boehner refused to use the power of the purse to defund the program. Since taking control of both the House and Senate in 2015 the GOP has not sent a bill repealing Obamacare and passed by both houses of Congress to the president. The GOP has no intention of taking real action to repeal Obamacare because the ultimate goal of the multinational corporations and “too big to fail banks” funding the party is to move the cost of employer paid health insurance from corporate expense to the backs of the taxpayer.
Hence, Republicans in Congress are active collaborators with the Democrat Party in the ultimate quest for single payer government controlled healthcare. They will not do the right thing on healthcare, trade, climate change, government regulation, education, taxes, or the national debt. They are representatives of powerful special interests, not the people.
Hawaii was the canary in the coal mine and the canary just died.
——In my state of Georgia, 500,000 people would lose their insurance-—
actually, they will not. they can keep the insurance by paying for it themselves. if they cough up the money, they keep the insurance.
Neither McConnell nor Boehner will stand fast. Watch for a giant giveaway.
No matter what happens we will lose. Either by Repub appointed justices who bend over backwards to uphold the law, or by Repub legislators who restore the subsidies if the SC strikes them down. Then there is the media who will savage repubs for taking away people’s insurance if Ob@stard loses.
My prediction s that the SC grants "gay" marriage protected under the 14th ( enhancing homosexuals already separate and unequal status under the law as a protected class ) and - they keep the Obama subsidies intact ( basically punting ) - they don't want any part of this mess.
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