COMMENTARY | Charles Krauthammer, one of the most brilliant pundits in the business, has suggested the Supreme Court ruling on health care reform, also known as Obamacare, will be a win/win for the president. Krauthammer is mistaken.
Krauthammer’s thesis goes like this: If the Supreme Court rules Obamacare is constitutional, it will add to it an air of legitimacy that it hitherto did not have. However, if the Supreme Court rules against health care reform, an albatross is removed from his next vis-à-vis the election.
Krauthammer’s logic is flawed because he does not factor in the overwhelming opposition to Obamacare felt by the American electorate. Simply because the Supreme Court might rule it constitutional does not mean it isn’t built on a tissue of lies, raising the cost of health care and decreasing its quality. The prospect of the Supreme Court keeping the law in place would just make people madder, not less.
This has been seen in a few other decisions. The Kelo decision legitimized the practice of some state and local governments seizing private property for all intents and purposes at will. The American people have not found the practice any less obnoxious because the Supreme Court said that governments can do it. A number of states and localities have been compelled to pass laws strengthening private property rights as a result of public outrage.
The idea that if Obamacare was rendered unconstitutional Obama would win does not meet the reality test either. The point will be that Obama did it, ramming the law through Congress in the ugliest sausage making way possible. And some of the ill effects of Obamacare, including sky rocketing insurance premiums, have started to become apparent.
It is as if a criminal had broken into one’s house with the purpose of stealing ones possessions and raping ones wife and daughters. If the police arrived in the nick of time to stop the criminal, one is not going to be less mad at him. One will just be relieved that his evil scheme was nipped in the bud on time.
So, in fact, the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare is a lose/lose for the president. He lost when he signed the bill into law and nothing that happens subsequent will save him in any way.
Source: Krauthammer: Mid-election SCOTUS ruling on Obamacare a ‘win-win’ for Obama, Jeff Poor, Daily Caller, Oct 1, 2011