December 17, 2018

A Short-Lived Victory Against ObamaCare?

Texas Judge Reed O’Connor struck down the laughably named “Affordable” Care Act.

ObamaCare is dead. Long live ObamaCare. Texas Judge Reed O'Connor struck down the laughably named “Affordable” Care Act Friday in a ruling cheered by President Donald Trump and many conservatives. But it’s complicated and that celebration is likely premature.

When Republicans passed tax reform, they repealed the tax penalty that enforced ObamaCare’s individual mandate. In doing so, they intentionally recalled Chief Justice John Roberts’s tortured logic and despotic legal rewrite in saving ObamaCare in 2012. He declared the mandate to be illegal under the Commerce Clause — “The Framers gave Congress the power to regulate commerce, not to compel it” — but then he rewrote the law to declare the penalty a tax so as to justify it under Congress’s tax authority. Never mind that Democrats spent four years declaring it wasn’t a tax, or that they had drafted the law to specifically avoid that language. Republicans set the tax at $0.

Thus, 20 suing states argued and O'Connor agreed that the law is undermined and unconstitutional since the tax no longer exists and the entire law depends on the mandate. Republicans hoped for this outcome when drafting tax reform, but having repealed the tax while leaving the rest of the law standing, they undermined their own argument. Roberts did get it entirely wrong in 2012, but O'Connor’s ruling is unlikely to stand when it goes before the Fifth Circuit Court and then potentially the Supreme Court.

California led the 17 states opposing Texas and 19 others. The pro-ObamaCare states will challenge the ruling on the grounds that it represents, as California Attorney General Xavier Becerra put it, “an assault on 133 million Americans with pre-existing conditions, on the 20 million Americans who rely on the A.C.A.‘s consumer protections for health care, on America’s faithful progress toward affordable health care for all Americans.”

The Democrats’ strategy in establishing ObamaCare was politically and practically brilliant. They constructed a new entitlement that could survive legal challenge even when it shouldn’t have, and millions of Americans now depend on the law, making repeal of any kind — via Congress or the courts — effectively untenable. Ask congressional Republicans. And, as we warned from the beginning, the Democrats’ ultimate goal was single-payer health care. ObamaCare was deliberately faulty and incomplete, for which the convenient “solution” is total government health care. Bernie Sanders and his ilk have made this plain with “Medicare for All.”

We hate to play the role of Debbie Downer, but this ruling may end up being little more than a blip on the radar. Congressional Republicans cannot outsource to the courts the work of ObamaCare repeal.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.