The Obama Administration’s fight to preserve the new health care law’s individual mandate appeared to take a dark turn Tuesday. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, arguing before the Supreme Court that the government has authority to force individuals to purchase health insurance, faced tough questions from justices, particularly frequent swing-vote Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John Roberts, who was also viewed as a potential vote in favor of upholding the mandate.
TIME captures proponents and critics of the Affordable Care Act as they square off outside the Supreme Court, which is hearing arguments on the law’s constitutionality this week in Washington.
Listening to the heated rhetoric coming out of Washington, you may think the three days of health care arguments at the Supreme Court that began Monday morning, March 26, are about whether President Obama should have the power to force Americans to buy health insurance and order states to double the size of Medicaid through [...]
Clearly, health care reform was a losing political issue for lots of congressional Democrats, especially those who were up for reelection in 2010. The issue helped mobilize Republican voters who managed to unseat enough Democrats to shift the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Democrats lost their Senate super majority and Republicans now hold a [...]
The Obama administration’s decision to skip further appellate review on the Affordable Care Act is a risky but potentially high-value play by the White House in the legal battle over health care reform.
On Wednesday afternoon, a coalition of Ohio conservatives will flex their muscles in a show of force against President Obama’s health-care reform law. Activists opposed to a health-insurance mandate will submit nearly 550,000 signatures to Ohio’s Secretary of State in order to place a constitutional amendment – known as the Healthcare Freedom Amendment — on [...]
Former Obama Administration budget director Peter Orszag has not exactly worked hard to maintain friendly ties with the White House since he left his post in the summer of 2010. First, he took a job writing columns for The New York Times, the first of which ran in September 2010 and suggested extending the Bush [...]
Wednesday’s appeals court ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act was undoubtedly a win for the Obama Administration. The Sixth Circuit, based in Cincinnati, agreed with a previous district court ruling that the law’s individual mandate does not violate the Constitution. Challengers argued in this case, as they have in others across the [...]
(This post was update at 6:35 p.m.) Yes, we’re back here again already, with at least one Republican claiming this week that Democratic health reform will kill seniors. Sigh. The target of the GOP attack is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a controversial group to be appointed by the president and charged with slowing the [...]
On the campaign trial – especially the presidential campaign trail – nuance rarely breaks through the fog of generalization. Mitt Romney is the frontrunner and a flip-flopper on the issues. Michele Bachmann is the Tea Party favorite and an evangelical Christian. Jon Huntsman worked for Obama, but might have a good shot in a general [...]
