Winners and losers from Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling
It was a huge victory for the Obama administration, but it gives Republicans a rallying cry for the November election.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court decided that the president’s signature health care legislation, commonly known as “Obamacare,” will stand. The Supreme Court appears only to have thrown out a provision that would penalize states for not expanding their Medicaid rolls.
It’s impossible to analyze the high court’s decision without considering what it means for November’s presidential election.
Most important, by winning today, President Obama avoids the taint of being framed as a political “loser” who wasted a massive amount of political capital on an unconstitutional bill. His victory will allow him to campaign on the bill’s key provisions: providing health care to 30 million Americans by 2022 who otherwise wouldn’t have it, doing away with pre-existing conditions and lifetime insurance caps, and adding children up to age 26 to their parents’ insurance policies.
“Whatever the politics, today’s decision was a victory for people all over this country whose lives will be more secure because of this law and the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold it,” Obama said hours after the ruling.
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