Trump Admin Closer to Dismantling the ACA in the Courts

[Milchshake]

Ongoing In: When the GOP Threatens Health Care, Believe Them


DOJ lays out case for striking down Obamacare in its entirety;

The Trump administration offered its first full argument Wednesday for its reversal on the Affordable Care Act, arguing in new court filings that the entire law "should not be allowed to remain in effect."

The government argues in the filings that the so-called "individual mandate" requiring Americans to have coverage is unconstitutional and that the rest of the law should therefore also be struck down, even if the government "might support some individual provisions as a policy matter."

In the filing, Assistant Attorney General Joseph Hunt acknowledged that the administration had previously argued that parts of the law could remain in effect even if the individual mandate were struck down, but he said, the administration had come to believe it could no longer defend that position. He suggested that rewriting the statute by "picking and choosing which provisions to invalidate" would interfere with the role of Congress and the "proper course" for the courts would be to strike down the law in its entirety.
The brief was filed with the conservative-leaning 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear arguments in July and possibly tee up a Supreme Court case next term that could finally decide the fate of the law and render a decision during the heart of the presidential election.


If the law is struck down, it would be a major victory for President Donald Trump, who has worked his entire presidency to wipe away a signature legislative achievement of the Obama administration.


Which totally explains the misdirected rage at the very real possibility of some 20 million Americans losing their coverage. It's preferable to believe the lies than face this horrible truth.

[Captain N]

If there was any quicker way to destroy both a chance at reelection and the Republican control of the Senate in one very stupid move this would be it.

[Somewhatconcerned]

If there was any quicker way to destroy both a chance at reelection and the Republican control of the Senate in one very stupid move this would be it.

This country's dislike of the left and of Democrats outweighs its desire for healthcare.

[Captain N]

This country's dislike of the left and of Democrats outweighs its desire for healthcare.

How did that work out for the House in 2018?

If you want to talk about dislike of a political affiliation we could start with why the amount of people calling themselves Republicans in 2016 have suddenly become "Woke Independents" over the last three years though.

[Kiri]

This country's dislike of the left and of Democrats outweighs its desire for healthcare.

If the hate is really that great, just split up the Union. Because what kind of Union is it if one half of the country would be willing to sacrifice their health just for a political gotcha for the other?

[Dontrike]

The party of healthcare indeed. I can't wait to see the "plan" they come up with, maybe we'll get those death camps Republicans were so fond of back when Obama was president.

[PACOX]

So he's been trying this for 2 years without even something to replace it? And people actually vote for this guy? There are candidates who at least try to come up with solutions. Might want to throw your vote behind them.

Its the definition of half-assed.

[Gestopft]

Are Republicans more excited or terrified about the prospect of this actually getting rid of the ACA? I say terrified, but maybe a bit scaroused.

[Breccia]

I guarantee you whatever they try to replace Obamacare with

HAHAHAHAHAHHA "replace" HAHAHAHAHAHA

Oh man...that's gold...

Trump doesn't have a replacement. He never did. The GOP tried a few things, namely 3, one of which was "repeal only, then do nothing" and it failed too...but at least they votes on two options. Trump promised better health care, for more people, for less money, and has done the opposite. He's never had a replacement. And since he's the one trying for the unilateral end, that's the only part hat matters.

"Replace". That's funny.

[Spectral]

If the hate is really that great, just split up the Union. Because what kind of Union is it if one half of the country would be willing to sacrifice their health just for a political gotcha for the other?

There isn't really a coherent economic divide to accomplish that with. Realistically, it'll take a few more decades of economic, cultural, and demographic self segregation before there are lines that look like much of a map. The most coherent mapping I've seen was a few years ago in Business Insider:



Which of those could you plausibly fuse together to form Big Blue and Big Red? Wyoming, Idaho, and the rest of that sort of country doesn't really resemble the West Coast or Midwest enough to fuse them. Tidewater and Yankeedom are probably close enough that they could get along and be shared with the Left Coast, but that's geographically bizarre.

I don't expect there to ever be a peaceful breakup, but if there was, I'd expect more than two nations.

- - - Updated - - -

So he's been trying this for 2 years without even something to replace it? And people actually vote for this guy? There are candidates who at least try to come up with solutions. Might want to throw your vote behind them.

Its the definition of half-assed.

Prior to actually having the power to do so, many (maybe most) Republicans seemed to adhere to the position that the ACA was so bad that just repealing it would be an improvement. Their unwillingness to actually execute that repeal when they had the ability to do so lays bare just how disingenuous they were from 2010-2016 when speaking on the matter.

[Mormolyce]

This country's dislike of the left and of Democrats outweighs its desire for healthcare.

Dying of a treatable illness to own the libs.

[beanman12345]

How did that work out for the House in 2018?

If you want to talk about dislike of a political affiliation we could start with why the amount of people calling themselves Republicans in 2016 have suddenly become "Woke Independents" over the last three years though.

He completely ignores 2018 cause it destroys his narrative, so don't expect any real response in that regard.

OT Trump just wants to rid this country of anything that Obama did, mostly because he is black and trump hates and has always hated him for it. This is 100% what this is about. It's not that he doesn't care that it's political suicide, in his retarded head it isn't. In his head he thinks doing this will make the republican party the party of great healthcare, he's said so himself. Except republicans have 0 interest in healthcare, they've said so themselves which is why even they in the senate no longer support repealing this. They never really ever had desire for healthcare, it was just BS to rile up their base. Trump is on a one man kamikaze suicide run to destroy any republican chance in 2020.

[Mormolyce]

There isn't really a coherent economic divide to accomplish that with. Realistically, it'll take a few more decades of economic, cultural, and demographic self segregation before there are lines that look like much of a map. The most coherent mapping I've seen was a few years ago in Business Insider:

Which of those could you plausibly fuse together to form Big Blue and Big Red? Wyoming, Idaho, and the rest of that sort of country doesn't really resemble the West Coast or Midwest enough to fuse them. Tidewater and Yankeedom are probably close enough that they could get along and be shared with the Left Coast, but that's geographically bizarre.

It's actually worse than that, most of the divide has nothing to do with states and everything to do with urban vs. rural voters. So you'd have to keep all the cities and kick out the countryside somehow.

Fun fact: draw up a list of the top 11 states by number of people voting Democrat in the 2016 Presidential election. Now do the same for Republican states.

Same list.

[Grapemask]

This country's dislike of the left and of Democrats outweighs its desire for healthcare.

Probably true, if you reduce "this country" to about 38% of people. Seems like a pretty shitty percentage to qualify as a whole country, but there you have it.

[Spectral]

It's actually worse than that, most of the divide has nothing to do with states and everything to do with urban vs. rural voters. So you'd have to keep all the cities and kick out the countryside somehow.

Fun fact: draw up a list of the top 11 states by number of people voting Democrat in the 2016 Presidential election. Now do the same for Republican states.

Same list.

Yeah, good point. Any division would be a bizarre archipelago rather than having coherent boundaries.

[Rasulis]

It's actually worse than that, most of the divide has nothing to do with states and everything to do with urban vs. rural voters. So you'd have to keep all the cities and kick out the countryside somehow.

Fun fact: draw up a list of the top 11 states by number of people voting Democrat in the 2016 Presidential election. Now do the same for Republican states.

Same list.

At least in California, the rural areas are slowly turning blue. In 2018, Gavin Newsom won Nevada, Mono, Alpine, San Bernardino, Imperial, San Joaquin, Merced and San Benito. All of which are pretty rural.

The 2018 congressional election was even more telling. All seven remaining Republican’s district in CA are heavily rural. However, six out those seven districts shifted blue pretty hard between 2016 and 2018. The 2020 election will be interesting.

District 1 - Doug LaMalfa won by 18.1 pts. in 2016 and only 9.8 in 2018.

District 4 - Tom McClintock: 25.4 in 2016 and 8.2 in 2018.

District 22 - Devin Nunes: 35.1 in 2016 and 5.4 in 2018.

District 23 - Kevin McCarthy: 38.4 in 2016 and 27.4 in 2018.

District 42 - Ken Calvert: 17.6 in 2016 and 13 in 2018.

District 50 - Duncan Hunter: 26.9 in 2016 and 3.4 in 2018. - Extenuating circumstances.

[Fugus]

This would be epic suicide on their part.

1) Repeal the ACA and commit political suicide across the board because of it.

2) The Democrats effectively sweep in office across the board just by campaigning on healthcare alone. It would take grand scale cheating for this NOT to happen given all we have now. Even the gerrymandering and disenfranchisement they have going now couldn't save them from this.

3) The Democrats now have an overwhelming mandate for Medicare For All even more so than we have now to the point not even they can fight their voters. Especially with the ACA dead so they can't fight to save it and instead must start over.

Bonus) Just to piss off Trump and his voters, we start referring to it as ACA or Obamacare 2.0 still tying his legacy to it.


Them repealing the ACA would be the biggest mistake they can make given all the data we have now.

[Felya]

Them repealing the ACA would be the biggest mistake they can make given all the data we have now.

Unless Trump doesn’t believe he can win.

[Fugus]

Unless Trump doesn’t believe he can win.

True, but he thought that when he ran for President and did it anyways. If they try and actually succeed, they are fucked.

[Fahrenheit]

Would be super dumb thing to try to advance during a Presidential campaign year.