Following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in favor of ObamaCare on Thursday, ABC News quickly touted the victory for the Obama administration with correspondent Terry Moran declaring “ObamaCare 2, conservatives 0 is the score right now.”
The ABC reporter went on, in the 10 AM EDT hour special, to hype how "once again its Chief Justice John Roberts crushing the hopes of conservatives, upholding a key section of the ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act.”
After Moran detailed the court’s decision, ABC World News Anchor David Muir turned to Jonathan Karl, ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent, who played up how the White House’s likely message to Republicans will likely be “enough is enough”:
The message from the White House will be enough is enough. You’ve tried to destroy this law in the courts. Republicans have tried to repeal this law in Congress many, many times and have failed now is the time to recognize this is the law of the land, and there should be unity in trying to make it work.
Karl went on to insist that Republican governors have a sense of “relief” that ObamaCare’s federal subsidies will remain intact and David Muir suggested that the GOP now won’t have to grapple with the “political hot potato” of “what to do with the more than six million Americans who would have been affected had the ruling not gone in the president's way.”
The ABC News Chief White House Correspondent continued hype up the supported “relief” among GOPers that ObamaCare will remain intact:
There is absolutely relief on the part of Republican governors across this country and Republican leaders in Congress. Keep in mind, you've got 37 states where people would have lost subsidies that are helping them buy health insurance right now. 37 states lead by Republican governors. So this would have been a major problem for them.
They opposed this law obviously but on their watch they would have seen six million of their constituents, more than 6 million, lose subsidies that are helping them buy health care and there was no unity on Capitol Hill among Republicans about what to do about it.
I can tell you I've had private conversations with Republican leaders in Congress who were secretly, they wouldn't admit this publicly, but secretly hoping that this case would go down just as it has.
Later in the segment, Muir returned to Moran who concluded the ABC News Special by insisting that with this ruling ObamaCare is now “embedded in American life”:
We now have two precedents from this court establishing ObamaCare as legal from two different legal assaults. And we also have, as you have pointed out now, millions and millions of people in this system. It means that ObamaCare is now embedded, it’s embedded in law and it’s embedded in American life. It can be changed but it's going to be very, very hard. It has taken root now in American law and in American's lives.
See relevant transcript below.
ABC News Special
June 25, 2015
DAVID MUIR: Good morning everyone. And we are coming on the air now because the Supreme Court has just ruled on the key issue of ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act. The justices upholding a key provision of the law. I want to get right to ABC’s Terry Moran who covers the court for us. Terry what do we know?
TERRY MORAN: Well good morning David. ObamaCare 2, conservatives 0 is the score right now. This is the second huge challenge trying to tear down the Affordable Care Act using the Supreme Court and once again its Chief Justice John Roberts crushing the hopes of conservatives, upholding a key section of the ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act, saying it's not the job of this court to try to read into inconsistencies in the law and find for one side or the other. He says you got to look at the whole law and this whole law stands. The issue here was a little complicated. It had to do with subsidies that lower income people get under the law to help them buy insurance.
In many states those subsidies are provided by the federal government. Opponents of this law discovered an inconsistency, they discovered one line in a different section of the law that said only states can provide those subsidies. The Obama administration and others said if you look at the whole structure of this law, Congress intended people to get subsidies whether from the state or from the federal government and here, in a ringing phrase, Chief Justice John Roberts sides with President Obama, sides with the liberals. He says “in a democracy the power to make law rests with those chosen by the people.”
The Congress right across the street here. He says “in every case we must respect the role of the legislature and take care not to undo here what is done there.” The bottom line, the justices of the Supreme Court by 6-3, Justice Kennedy also joining this opinion, sides with President Obama, turned back that second big challenge to ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act will go on and six million people who depend on those federal subsidies will continue to get them.
MUIR: And as you point out Terry, this is the second time ObamaCare has been challenged there at the Supreme Court. The second time the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of ObamaCare. I want to get over to Jon Karl at the White House, our Chief White House Correspondent because Jon we have heard Josh Earnest there at the White House the press secretary saying that if the Supreme Court had put the nation's health care system, had they not ruled this way, they would have put it into “utter chaos” and the president essentially saying there would be no solution here.
JONATHAN KARL: That's right. And the White House had been saying they were very confident they would prevail. But let me tell you David they were apprehensive about this. If the decision had gone the other way it would have cut at the heart of the president's health care law. It would have been devastating to ObamaCare. I expect we will hear from the president on this.
I expect we'll hear from him making the point that for the second time critics of this law have tried to challenge its legal basis at the Supreme Court and for the second time the Supreme Court has upheld the law. The message from the White House will be enough is enough. You’ve tried to destroy this law in the courts. Republicans have tried to repeal this law in Congress many, many times and have failed now is the time to recognize this is the law of the land, and there should be unity in trying to make it work.
MUIR: Jon I’m curious, is there any relief among Republicans with this decision as well because had the Supreme Court not ruled in favor of ObamaCare would it have landed this political hot potato in their lap, what to do with the more than six million Americans who would have been affected had the ruling not gone in the president's way?
KARL: David, there is absolutely relief on the part of Republican governors across this country and Republican leaders in Congress. Keep in mind, you've got 37 states where people would have lost subsidies that are helping them buy health insurance right now. 37 states lead by Republican governors. So this would have been a major problem for them.
They opposed this law obviously but on their watch they would have seen six million of their constituents, more than 6 million, lose subsidies that are helping them buy health care and there was no unity on Capitol Hill among Republicans about what to do about it. I can tell you I've had private conversations with Republican leaders in Congress who were secretly, they wouldn't admit this publicly, but secretly hoping that this case would go down just as it has.
MUIR: That they won’t have to deal with this politically.
KARL: Yes.
--MUIR: Let's get back to Terry Moran at the Supreme Court because a lot of people will be looking very closely at this decision again Terry. Siding with the president and this Chief Justice who again has ruled in favor of ObamaCare.
MORAN: What a story that is David. Chief Justice John Roberts, a very staunchly conservative chief justice. He’s been very conservative on affirmative action and on other matters. For the second time rescuing a liberal president's signature legislative accomplishment. And it means this. We now have two precedents from this court establishing ObamaCare as legal from two different legal assaults.
And we also have, as you have pointed out now, millions and millions of people in this system. It means that ObamaCare is now imbedded, it’s imbedded in law and it’s imbedded in American life. It can be changed but it's going to be very, very hard. It has taken root now in American law and in American's lives.
