The Supreme Court’s decision on the 2010 healthcare law may represent a losing proposition for President Barack Obama regardless of which way that decision goes,
Politico reports.
If the court overturns Obamacare’s mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance, the president will have to face defeat on the signature piece of legislation for his first term in office. And if the court rules in his favor, Obama will have to take ownership of a law that half the country opposes.
The implications may constitute a major setback for the president’s re-election campaign whichever way the court decides. Oral arguments in the case are taking place this week.
“Even if the Democrats run the table [at the Supreme Court], it’s still going to be just as unpopular,” Mark McClellan, director of the left-leaning Brookings Institution’s Center for Health Care Reform, told Politico.
Indeed Obama may suffer most from a Supreme Court victory, which would likely fire up the Republican base. “The issue is much bigger than the mandate in the healthcare law itself,” Leonard Curry, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, told Politico. “The issue is the contrast between the free market and the government and a government-controlled economy. Obamacare is simply a symptom of the president’s ideology.”
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