Special report: Obamacare on trial: The case’s policy implications
The two-year national firestorm raging over health care will hit a crescendo this week when the U.S. Supreme Court opens long-awaited oral arguments in the legal battle that will finally decide whether President Obama’s health care overhaul is to be preserved or dismantled.
The court’s nine justices on Monday will begin hearing an unprecedented six hours of arguments over three days as they weigh whether the Affordable Care Act — Obama’s signature legislative achievement — is constitutional. But it will be the fight outside the court that may have the most immediate impact on whether the public will rally around — or against — the president.
Both sides of the debate plan to stage hours of competing demonstrations outside the Supreme Court over the next several days, raising the volume of an already heated debate that split the country, largely along party lines. Adding to the tension, the high court is reviewing the legal challenges brought by Republican-led states against the backdrop of a presidential campaign in which Republicans have made health care the central argument for ousting Obama.
“This really is a line in the sand for our politics,” said Leonard Steinhorn, a former political consultant now at American University. “It’s just a highly politicized environment.”
Friday marked the two-year anniversary of the health care law, and Republicans and conservative activists took advantage of the opportunity to deride Obama’s plan ahead of Monday’s opening arguments. Groups ranging from the Republican National Committee to Americans for Prosperity, the powerful conservative organization founded with the support of billionaires Charles and David Koch, fired away at “Obamacare” in anticipation of the Supreme Court showdown.
The White House, meanwhile, was much more subdued in acknowledging the anniversary of its own achievement, even though the president has stepped up his defense of the law in the face of its most serious challenge.
“There’s a lot of misinformation about what the Affordable Care Act is,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “The president strongly believes [repealing it] is a mistake, and he certainly will not shy away from the opportunity to debate that vision versus his own when it comes to providing health care to the American people.”
Democrats, their labor union allies and other supporters of the reforms will hold “celebrations” outside the Supreme Court, including daily demonstrations and vigils, to counter the Tea Party demonstrations against the reforms.
But the well-organized, vocal detractors of the law — whose anger helped catapult Republicans to greater influence in Congress and statehouses across the country in the 2010 elections — are expected to make their presence felt. Saturday’s “Road to Repeal” rally featuring former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli kicked off what’s expected to be days of demonstrations by conservatives. Tea Party supporters were bussed in from around the country to participate in the rally, with plans to remain throughout the week.
The demonstrations may not reach the fever pitch of 2010, Cuccinelli said, but that doesn’t mean people are any less passionate about the law now.
“If the pitch is not as high, it’s because people are holding their breath and waiting for the decision to be made,” Cuccinelli said. “And then you’re going to see a lot of pent-up energy and political activism again, like we saw in 2010.”
