WASHINGTON — Justice Antonin Scalia expressed confidence on Wednesday morning that Congress would act to mitigate the damage if the Supreme Court ruled to invalidate Obamacare subsidies for millions of Americans.
“You really think Congress is just going to sit there while all the disastrous consequences ensue?” he asked Obama administration lawyer Don Verrilli.
The U.S. solicitor general had a sarcastic retort.
“Well, this Congress?”
The audience in the packed courtroom laughed.
“Yes,” Scalia protested, “I think this Congress would act.”
The exchange came during oral arguments in King v. Burwell, when Verrilli pointed out that ruling against the Obama administration would pose hardships for millions of Americans who rely on the subsidies. Such a ruling would also imperil other core components of Obamacare and throw health insurance markets into disarray.
Republican congressional leaders and top committee chairmen have said they’re hard at work on a contingency plan, but they don’t have a bill yet, and they haven’t committed to offering one by June, when a Supreme Court ruling is expected.
Scalia wasn’t shy about expressing his misgivings about Obamacare.
“This is not the most elegantly drafted statute,” he said.
Justice Antonin Scalia expressed confidence on Wednesday morning
that Congress would act to mitigate the damage if the Supreme Court
ruled to invalidate Obamacare subsidies for millions of Americans…
…while ignoring the fact that Congress could have avoided the Supreme Court entirely by simply fixing the damned typo in the first place.
I hate this mendacious evil fuck with every fiber of my being.
Political Hack In a Black Robe says what?
“You really think Congress is just going to sit there while all the disastrous consequences ensue?”
There is no “thinking” to it. It’s what they have been doing for 3 years: trying to ax ACA with no alternative ready to replace it. It’s to bad you are forced to respect this douchbag…if not someone might ask the idiot what COULD they do? There is a reason there is no alternative to the ACA…because it would have to be another ACA.
How can anyone ask if the biggest do nothing Congress in American history might “just sit there and do nothing”? He’s a vote to ax ACA and we know it. Just tell him to go home and watch some FOX.
Please stop referring to him as ‘Justice’ and call him what he is, republican Antonin Scalia.