Obamacare challenge

This was not a good week for the Obamacare defenders presenting their case before the Supreme Court. Judging from the initial reaction of the justices, it doesn't appear that the government's legal team convinced the court to uphold mandated health care coverage, the centerpiece legislation of the Obama presidency. One of the more laughable moments in the historic proceedings occurred during Wednesday's oral arguments when Justice Antonin Scalia poked fun at the sheer size of the Obamacare bill. "What happened to the Eighth Amendment? You really want us to go through these 2,700 pages?" Justice Scalia asked Edwin Kneedler, the associate solicitor general. The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishments. "And do you really expect the Court to do that? Or do you expect us to to give this function to our law clerks?" Justice Scalia continued. "Is this not totally unrealistic? That we are going to go through this enormous bill item by item and decide each one? Arguing on behalf of the states challenging Obamacare, Paul Clement appeared to do a much more credible job this week than Solicitor General Donald Verrilli and Kneedler, who appeared off stride in trying to defend the bill. Legal observers and news analysts used words like "lost big" and "surprisingly inept" in describing Verrilli's efforts to defend the case for individual mandate. In summary, one television news analyst said Verrilli's performance was "a train wreck for the Obama administration." Clement argued his case well again on Wednesday, stating that if the individual mandate were found unconstitutional, the entire bill would have to be struck down. "As Congress found and the Federal Government concedes, the community-rating and guaranteed-issue provisions of the Act cannot stand without the individual mandate," said Clement. "Congress found that the individual mandate was essential to their operation." Clement said that without the individual mandate, the cost of insurance would quickly skyrocket, since there would be no one to foot the bill for increases with required care. Even though the court will not render its opinion until June, the administration is already in a spin mode to prepare people for a possible Supreme Court beat-down of Obamacare. Even veteran Democratic strategist James Carville has weighed in to soften the expected blow. He said a defeat in the court will be "the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic party because health care costs are gonna escalate unbelievably." Even if the Supreme Court decision goes against Obamacare this summer, we can still expect a tight race for the White House in November. Republicans face their own challenges in trying to unify and energize their base. It will key for the party's nominee to reel in the independent, Christian conservative, Hispanic and women voters in order to unseat the incumbent president. By Jim Zbick jzbick@tnonline.com