Latest Conservative Attempt to Undo Obamacare Fails in Court

[DonViejo]

By David Weigel

Late last year I wrote about the Halbig case, one of several lawsuits—brought by disgruntled independent business owners and defended by libertarian advocates—that challenged whether most states could get Affordable Care Act subsidies. The plaintiffs argued that the text of the ACA, which referred to subsidies for states that built health care exchanges, meant that the states without them could not receieve subsidies. The IRS, they said, overstepped its boundaries when it tried to do otherwise.

Well, Halbig was argued before D.C. District Court. Judge Paul Friedman has just sided with the government against the libertarians. From the decision:

Plaintiffs’ theory is tenable only if one accepts that in enacting the ACA, Congress intended to compel states to run their own Exchanges – or at least to provide such compelling incentives that they would not decline to do so. The problem that plaintiffs confront in pressing this argument is that there is simply no evidence in the statute itself or in the legislative history of any intent by Congress to ensure that states established their own Exchanges. And when counsel for plaintiffs was asked about this at oral argument, he could point to none...

Indeed, if anything, the legislative history cuts in the other direction and suggests that Congress intended to provide states with flexibility as to whether or not to establish and operate Exchanges... Nor does plaintiffs’ theory make intuitive sense. A state-run Exchange is not an end in and of itself, but rather a mechanism intended to facilitate the purchase of affordable health insurance. And there is evidence throughout the statute of Congress’s desire to ensure broad access to affordable health coverage.

more
http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/01/15/latest_conservative_attempt_to_undo_obamacare_fails_in_court.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content&mc_cid=6300946fdd&mc_eid=7a8b58c8c3

[ailsagirl]

1. What's the definition of insanity again? (or stupidity!!)

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. It's okay. The new White Hope, Brian Schweitzer, will kill it for us!

[Jamaal510]

3. This is almost

like having a baseball pitcher stall a game and throw back to 1st base a bazillion times, attempting to pick off a runner. They know this won't work, but they do it, anyway.