HE’D RATHER BLAME REPUBLICANS THAN FIX IT: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Obama will veto any Obamacare backup plan Congress passes. This makes sense, as Obama is clearly more interested in scoring political points, by blaming Republicans, rather than fixing his signature legislation. As with all things Obama, it’s his way or the highway, and Congress’s desires are irrelevant.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Obamacare subsidy case, King v. Burwell, at the end of June. If the Court rules that individuals in States without state-established health insurance exchanges cannot obtain Obamacare subsidies, some believe the GOP needs to have a legislative “fix” available. The Hill has reported that GOP leaders are hinting at extending the subsidies, at least temporarily, combined with repeal of the individual and employer mandates:, an idea originally floated by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI):
While working on their own ideas, Freedom Caucus members are also open to something like Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) idea to temporarily extend subsidies.
Johnson’s plan would extend ObamaCare subsidies through August 2017, when he hopes there will be a Republican president, while also repealing the law’s individual and employer mandates.
His bill has 31 Republican co-sponsors in the Senate, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). It has not received the same welcome in the House, though; Ryan’s working group is still publicly undecided on the question, and House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) came out in opposition to the idea last month. . . .
Republicans acknowledge they will face pressure to do something if the court rules for the challengers. Figures from the Obama administration released Tuesday show 6.4 million people would lose subsidies that help them afford insurance.
Of course, why Republicans would be to blame for the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare as written by Congress is inexplicable, other than by the fact that the mainstream media has repeatedly said so. No Republicans–none–voted for Obamacare, and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admitted that the bill was not read carefully, because Congress had to pass it so we could find out what’s in it. As David Harsanyi observes:
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that the 37 states that have declined to set up exchanges would see an average spike of 287 percent should the King v. Burwell decision not go the Obama administration’s way. It would be 650 percent in Mississippi — an amount that only proves that exchanges have not made insurance markets more competitive or more affordable as promised. Actually, the cost of insurance in federally run exchanges is already 287 percent higher. The difference is picked up by taxpayers. . . .
So you can imagine the overwhelming appeal to emotion that Democrats and the media would roll out if millions were to lose their subsidies. The fight would be over whom the public blames for whatever chaos would ensue. The culpability for that chaos would belong in one place.
Yep, intelligent individuals know who is to blame for Obamacare and all its warts. But the problems is that low information voters have swallowed the progressive/liberal mainstream media’s storyline, which of course blames the Republicans for the harsh, natural consequences of an ill-considered bill they never supported in the first place.