Obamacare Wins And Republicans Dodge A Bullet

I don't think anyone expected Obamacare to win the Supreme Court decision by the margin it did. Most thought it would be a 5 to 4 decision regardless of which way it went, but it wasn't. The court voted 6 to 3 (with Kennedy and Roberts joining liberals Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor) to uphold the giving of government subsidies in all states instead of just the states with a state insurance exchange. The court, in an opinion written by Roberts, said it was obvious that Congress meant to give the subsidies to people in all states.

And after the court decision, congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidates were quick to condemn the decision as terrible and claim they would resume their effort to repeal the ACA (Obamacare). They haven't been saying much lately, because they were afraid they might actually win this court case -- and have to go into the next election after taking health insurance away from as many as 8,5 million people.

But they dodged that bullet, so they can now resume the political theater aimed at their base teabaggers -- secure in the knowledge that they can't possibly succeed (and get in the same kind of electoral trouble winning the court case would have caused). I can't believe any but the stupidest of them actually want to repeal Obamacare. Winning the court case would have taken insurance away from 8.5 million people, while repealing Obamacare would take health insurance away from around 19 million people. They say they would replace Obamacare with something of their own, a better plan -- but not a single Republican has come up with a plan so far.

This court case was a good thing, because it once again stamped the program as legal and constitutional. Now maybe we can get bust fixing Obamacare -- because while it was a big improvement over what we had before, it is far from perfect.

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A new CBS News / New York Times Poll shows the court ruled the way most Americans wanted them to rule. About 70% of poll respondents said they wanted the court to allow subsidies in all states. And for the first time since that poll has been taken, more people approve of Obamacare than disapprove. People are starting to realize that, while Obamacare is not perfect, it is better -- and most want it improved, not repealed.