Thread by @charles_gaba

🚨 The Sword of Damocles continues to dangle over the #ACA: Democrats STILL have ONE CHANCE to #MootTheSuit ahead of the #SCOTUS ruling:
acasignups.net/21/02/03/democ…

There was a chance the Supreme Court would either save *or* kill the #ACA this morning as part of several decisions announced...but the #TexasFoldEm case turned out not to be among those.

That means the ACA will likely survive at least until sometime this spring/summer. 2/

The good news is this means Congress still has time to #MootTheSuit. There's three possible ways to resolve the issue before SCOTUS issues their decision:

1. ⬆️ the penalty to $1 or more
2. Clarify that the mandate can be✂️
3. ❌ the mandate language itself

3/

Unfortunately, #2 and #3 probably couldn't be passed in the Senate via reconciliation, & there's no way 10 GOP Senators would agree to #SaveTheACA, so that leaves #1: Raising the mandate penalty back above $0, which could be included in the #AmRescuePlan bill. 4/

The ACA mandate penalty was changed to $0 by the GOP in the first place via reconciliation as part of their 2017 tax cut bill; this would be a reversal.

It doesn't even have to be reset to the full $695/person. Even $1 would suffice...underscoring how stupid the lawsuit is. 5/

One new item: Until recently I assumed that it would have to be done BEFORE SCOTUS gives their decision. @nicholas_bagley informs me that Congress *could* do so *afterwards* after all...but they might not because of the political blowback. HOWEVER... 6/

...I'm fairly certain that they'd get a LOT MORE political blowback if the public knew that they COULD save the ACA and *chose not to do so*. Even Sen. Manchin & Sinema would be pilloried and rightly so.

Having said that, it'd still be better to #MootTheSuit NOW. 7/

For one thing, they're ALREADY PREPPING a reconciliation package for the #AmRescuePlan anyway. For another, that package INCLUDES MAJOR #ACA UPGRADES...it'd be absurd NOT to include this one, especially since it's fully reconciliation-compliant. 8/

For another, if they *don't* include it in this reconciliation bill and SCOTUS *does* strike down the law, then they'd have to include it in the 2nd reconciliation bill...and that could come too late to #SaveTheACA anyway.

#MootTheSuit, @HouseDemocrats & @SenateDems!
/END

UPDATE: (sigh) OK, apparently it may have to be more than $1 after all to be "reconciliation-compliant."

Fine. Make it $100. Or $200. Or restore it to the original $695 (or 2.5% of income), which should also cause premiums to drop by 6% or so to boot:

https://twitter.com/jrovner/status/1357033668259303427