Looks like Democrats will try to make the lingering Trump-backed lawsuit seeking to overturn the entire ACA front-and-center in Senate races next year.
Manchin credits the suit in part with his reelection, but strategy didn't work everywhere: Hawley joined lawsuit & still won.
Manchin credits the suit in part with his reelection, but strategy didn't work everywhere: Hawley joined lawsuit & still won.
Issue could also put even more focus on SCOTUS, given ACA was saved twice before on 5-4 votes, and more seats could open up in next presidential term.
Congress could have nuked the suits with a single sentence tucked into a must-pass bill but -- hasn't.
Lamar Alexander reiterated to me this week that not a single GOP senator thought they were nuking the ACA (or it's pre-ex protections) when they nuked the individual mandate as part of the GOP-Trump tax law, and he's dismissed Trump DOJ's legal theory as far-fetched.
Susan Collins has written multiple letters complaining to Barr to no avail.
Other Republican senators have written bills that would restore some but not all of the protections for people with pre-existing conditions in the ACA. (None have gone anywhere.)
I haven't seen anyone propose a one-line bill that would nuke the lawsuit, which is based on a Republican theory of the will of the Democratic Congress in 2010, not a theory on the intent of the 2017 Congress in writing the tax law.
