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- President Donald Trump on Sunday tweeted that it will be “a big WIN” for the US if the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
- “Obamacare will be replaced with a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative if it is terminated in the Supreme Court,” he wrote, less than a day after nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
- Democrats condemned Trump’s message with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeting that the president had all but admitted that he plans to invalidate Obamacare.
- “She will be the vote that takes away health care for millions of Americans, including 130 million people and counting with pre-existing conditions,” Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow told Fox News about Barrett.
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President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that it will be a victory for the United States if the Supreme Court dismantles the Affordable Care Act.
“Obamacare will be replaced with a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative if it is terminated in the Supreme Court. Would be a big WIN for the USA!” he wrote.
This comes less than a day after the president nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon, died on Sept. 18.
Barrett, a deeply conservative judge, has in the past spoken out against the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — which was signed into law by President Barack Obama.
In 2017, she criticized Chief Justice John Roberts, writing that he “pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.”
She continued: “He construed the penalty imposed on those without health insurance as a tax, which permitted him to sustain the statute as a valid exercise of the taxing power; had he treated the payment as the statute did — as a penalty — he would have had to invalidate the statute as lying beyond Congress’s commerce power.”
Trump’s tweet on Sunday drew instant backlash from Democrats.
“President Trump just admitted his nominee will strike down the Affordable Care Act,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on Twitter.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Barrett’s confirmation will deal a devastating blow to American people with preexisting medical conditions.
“What I am concerned about is anyone that President Trump would have appointed is there to undo the Affordable Care Act. That is why he’s in such a hurry,” Pelosi said.
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2020
On “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, said that Barrett’s stance on the Affordable Care Act is evident and has the potential to strip millions of necessary health insurance in the midst of a pandemic, according to the Hill.
“It’s very clear from her writings, multiple writings, that she will be the vote that takes away health care for millions of Americans, including 130 million people and counting with pre-existing conditions, and of course those are going up every day because of the health pandemic,” Stabenow said.
And Rep. Frank Pallone, of New Jersey, described Trump and Barrett as poised “to destroy our health care.”
—Rep. Frank Pallone (@FrankPallone) September 27, 2020
Senate Republicans plan to begin Barrett’s confirmation proceedings on Oct. 12, with the goal of having her on the bench by Election Day on Nov. 3. A week later, on Nov. 10, the Supreme Court is scheduled to consider a challenge to the constitutionality of Obamacare.
- Read more:
- High profile issues are now at stake on the Supreme Court in the wake of Ginsburg’s death
- Healthcare stocks plunge amid broad market rout as Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death creates uncertainty around Obamacare
- Trump’s renewed effort to dismantle Obamacare is particularly cruel during the pandemic
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