The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Obama Adminstration in King v. Burwell declaring the individual subsidies for the federal health care exchanges legal preserving Obamacare. This brought strong reaction from Republicans and conservatives.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckbee released the following statement:
Today’s King v. Burwell decision, which protects and expands ObamaCare, is an out-of-control act of judicial tyranny. Our Founding Fathers didn’t create a ‘do-over’ provision in our Constitution that allows unelected, Supreme Court justices the power to circumvent Congress and rewrite bad laws. The Supreme Court cannot legislate from the bench, ignore the Constitution, and pass a multi-trillion dollar ‘fix’ to ObamaCare simply because Congress misread what the states would actually do. The architects and authors of ObamaCare were intentional in the way they wrote the law. The courts have no constitutional authority to rescue Congress from creating bad law. The solution is for Congress to admit they screwed up, repeal the ‘nightmare of Obamacare’, and let states road-test real health care reforms.
Everywhere I go, I talk to American families who keep getting punched in the gut with outrageous insurance premiums and infuriating hospital bills. ObamaCare was railroaded through Congress to ‘solve’ our healthcare problems, but five years later, American families are getting railroaded by runaway mandates, big government bureaucracy, and out-of-control healthcare costs. ObamaCare is a $2.2 trillion Washington disaster that raided billions from Medicare and did nothing to fix our broken system of ‘sick care,’ which rewards irresponsibility and penalizes commonsense. As President, I will protect Medicare, repeal ObamaCare, and pass real reform that will actually lower costs, while focusing on cures and prevention rather than intervention. The status quo is unfair, unaffordable, unsustainable, and completely un-American.
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s statement:
The Obama Administration has ignored the text of the Affordable Care Act time and again, and today’s ruling allows them to continue to disregard the letter of the law. While I disagree with the ruling, it was never up to the Supreme Court to save us from Obamacare. We need leadership in the White House that recognizes the folly of having to pass a bill to know what’s in it. We need leadership that understands a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all policy does nothing to help health outcomes for Americans.
With individual premiums up more than 50 percent and nearly 5 million people losing their health plans, Americans deserve better than what we’re getting with Obamacare. It’s time we repealed Obamacare and replaced it with truly affordable, patient centered-health care reform, and I look forward to laying out my ideas on this issue.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s statement:
Today’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the administration’s implementation of ObamaCare means Republicans in the House and Senate must redouble their efforts to repeal and replace this destructive and costly law. From the beginning, it was clear that ObamaCare would fail the American people and this has proven to be true across the country and in Wisconsin. Workers have lost hours because of new costs faced by their employers, people have lost their insurance and cannot afford the dramatic premium and fee increases, and many can no longer see their preferred doctors. Now, instead of just finger-pointing from the president for why his law is failing, we need real leadership in Washington, and Congress needs to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s statement:
This decision turns both the rule of law and common sense on its head. Obamacare raises taxes, harms patients and doctors, and is the wrong fix for America’s health care system.As President, I would make it my mission to repeal it, and propose real solutions for our healthcare system.As a physician, I know Americans need a healthcare system that reconnects patients, families, and doctors, rather than growing government bureaucracy.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal:
Today, the Supreme Court had its say; soon, the American people will have theirs.
President Obama would like this to be the end of the debate on Obamacare, but it isn’t. The debate will continue because the law has failed to accomplish its prime objective: Containing health care costs.
Republicans must outline a clear and coherent vision for health care to win the trust of the American people to repeal Obamacare. And right now, I am the only candidate to put forward a comprehensive plan.
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, the debate will grow. Conservatives must be fearless in demanding that our leaders in Washington repeal and replace Obamacare with a plan that will lower health care costs and restore freedom.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s statement:
The idea that Washington, D.C. knows best has been proven wrong over and over and over again. And Obamacare is the best example of it in modern times.
I don’t believe we should have employer mandates, employee mandates, or health care mandates that make health care insurance so extraordinarily expensive.
Any family will tell you that the premiums have gone up. What we need to have is more choices for people, empowering them to make decisions; rewarding better health care outcomes; more flexibility; less mandates – where they’re empowered to make more decisions for themselves.
So fixing this is a huge, huge challenge. And we have a duty to begin to solve these problems.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released the following statement:
I respect the court and its role in our system of government, but Obamacare remains a terrible law. It’s led to too many people losing the coverage they had and spending more for what coverage they can get. Iowans tell me directly in town meetings and in emails and letters to my office that they don’t like the law. Obamacare upended the whole health system instead of targeting what was wrong and fixing those problems. Now the debate returns to the Congress and next year’s presidential election. I’m committed to replacing Obamacare with health care reforms that empower consumers, drive down costs, and use marketplace incentives to make health care coverage accessible and affordable. The current majority in Congress is committed to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with effective reforms driven by the marketplace, not the heavy hand of government.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) released a statement:
Today’s Supreme Court ruling does not change the fundamental reality that ObamaCare is a poorly conceived and reckless law.
As ObamaCare again finds itself under scrutiny of our highest court, it’s further affirmation that we need a workable solution for the millions of Americans who continue to face uncertainty over their health care due to this disastrous law.
I remain committed to working towards a sustainable health care system that puts the focus back on Iowa families and individuals, which is why I support repealing and replacing ObamaCare with affordable, patient centered alternatives. I will continue working to help Iowans achieve the care they deserve that enhances competition, increases flexibility, constrains rising costs and ensures Americans have a voice over their own health care.
Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) released a video statement:
Congressman David Young (R-Iowa) released the following statement:
It’s no secret – there are real problems with the Affordable Care Act. I hear that from Iowans every day and this ruling does not change that fact. The law has not lived up to its promises of lowering premiums and costs, allowing families to keep their doctors and health care plans, or fixing the underlying health care access problems. It may still be the law of the land, but it is a flawed law and one that needs to be repealed and replaced with a commonsense patient-centered solution.
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser called for Congress to enact the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act in response to the ruling.
Obamacare was enacted only after a group of self-identified pro-life Democrats caved and accepted a ‘promise’ by President Obama that it would not include taxpayer funding of abortion. The debate over whether that promise was kept was put to rest last year by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, which identified more than 1,000 Obamacare plans that include abortion on-demand, subsidized with our tax dollars. Today’s Supreme Court decision makes it clear that the fate of taxpayer funding of abortion and therefore the fate of countless unborn children rests in the hands of Congress. That’s why Congress must enact the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would permanently end taxpayer funding of abortion across all government programs, including Obamacare. If the President were truly committed to ensuring that no tax dollars pay for abortions under Obamacare, he’d sign it into law. Congress must continue to press this debate forward.
Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee CEO & President Peggy Nance responded:
When Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said that Congress must pass ObamaCare to know what’s in it, she could have said Congress’ words don’t matter anyway, the SCOTUS will correct the law to follow what they believe was Congress’ intent.
It is not the Court’s responsibility to rewrite the law. Their action today will ensure that the federal government will continue to exert huge control over healthcare, resulting in bloated bureaucracies, budget shortfalls, denial of care, and erosion of quality.
Women, who make 80 percent of the healthcare decisions, still believe that ObamaCare is a load of broken promises. Healthcare premiums have continued to rise, and Americans have not been able to keep their doctors.
It is up to Congress to clearly show the SCOTUS and the American people their true intentions. We renew our call for Congress to repeal this intrusive and burdensome law and ensure American families can make healthcare decisions with their doctors and that they are not forced to subsidize abortions.
American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp said the Justices should be brought back before the U.S. Senate.
Today we are reminded of why it is destructive to have activists on the Supreme Court who are empowered by their hubris to act as Judge, Senator and King.
What’s clear is that Professor Jonathan Gruber, President Barack Obama, Leader Harry Reid and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought they could force Republican governors to create their own state-based insurance exchanges. But because those 36 governors found Obamacare’s mandates so repellant, they spared their constituents and chose the unsubsidized Federal insurance exchanges instead.
Chief Justice John Roberts now thinks it is his job to re-write the unambiguous language of the law to achieve a certain outcome: the radical Leftist dream of socialized medicine.
Justice Roberts and the other concurring five justices have disgraced their office, sprayed graffiti on the Constitution, and set America on a path toward a constitutional crisis. In fact, two of these Justices blatantly deceived Congress during their confirmation hearings, and lied to the Presidents who appointed them. Justices Roberts and Anthony Kennedy promised President George W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan that they would follow the letter of the law.
Under oath, Justice Roberts swore that he would not engage in judicial activism. He has betrayed his own integrity, the integrity of the court and the American people.
Justices Roberts and Kennedy promised to only look at the statutory language drafted by Congress and the Constitutionality of that language. Instead they acted like corrupt county politicians, trying to achieve a political outcome as if they were cutting backroom deals in a smoke-filled room. The Republican-led Senate should haul these robed manipulators back to explain why they lied during their confirmation hearings. CEO’s of private corporations are not allowed to commit perjury before Congress. Why should the head of the Judiciary be held to a lower standard?
Those of us who labored to get John Roberts confirmed are owed an apology. What is more tragic is we owe our fellow Americans an apology for believing him in the first place.
There are three honest justices on the nation’s highest court: Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia. The world should know that Roberts and Kennedy have not behaved as justices but instead as political hacks without term limits. They have brought shame to their office and defied the Presidents who placed their trust in them.
Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann’s statement:
Obamacare was conceived through a coordinated campaign to deceive the public, leaving Americans with canceled policies, increased costs, and fewer freedoms. We will continue fighting to repeal and replace Obamacare, and we’ll start by electing a Republican to the White House in 2016.
Iowa GOP Co-Chair Cody Hoefert’s statement:
Hillary Clinton unquestioningly supports Obamacare, throwing into sharp contrast the decision facing Iowa in 2016. Here in Iowa there could be a 25% increase in our healthcare premiums just this year alone, a steep price to pay for this lackluster law.
Drew Klien, State Director for Americans for Prosperity – Iowa released the following statement:
Just like yesterday, Iowans have to face the chaos and uncertainty of government-run healthcare; and just like yesterday and the past five years, our volunteers are working to secure patient-centered reforms for Iowa. The King decision simply means it’s more important than ever to maintain our resolve. We’re pressing for state-based solutions that make healthcare about healing people, not political wrangling in Washington.