In the wake of President Obama’s comments at the G7 summit, where he expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will uphold the federal subsidies in ObamaCare, With All Due Respect hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann discussed the potential fallout for the president and Republicans after the Court decides King v. Burwell later this month. Heilemann also made sure to confirm all of Obama’s questionable statements by relying on what Bloomberg considers fact checking.
Obama offered a defense of the Affordable Care Act, and in the process made a number of questionable assertions:
You’ve got 16 million people who have gotten health insurance. An overwhelming majority of them are satisfied with the health insurance. It hasn't had an adverse effect on people who already had health insurance. The only affect it’s had on people who already had insurance is they now have an assurance that they won’t be prevented from getting health insurance if they have a pre-existing condition. And they have got additional protections with the health insurance that they do have. The costs have come in substantially lower than even our estimates about how much it would cost. Health care inflation overall has continued to be at some of the lowest levels in 50 years.
Heilemann, relying on a single so-called expert regarding health policy, noted:
Okay Mark, so we wondered about how true those things were, so we asked Bloomberg’s Alex Wayne, who has covered health care, and he said for the most part the things the president said about the Affordable Care Act are true, or at least mostly true. I'm sure the RNC will disagree with that and a lot of conservatives will claim that these numbers are all cooked in one way or the other, but the fact is that those things seem to ring true to the people who know most about health care policy.
It’s a little bit sad that Heilemann and Bloomberg’s version of fact checking is asking one analyst about the president’s statements and taking his thoughts as gospel. Halperin went on to praise Obama, arguing that “the poll numbers suggest that the people who have it like it. It has grown well. The costs are not so far, overall, 
exploding. So I think he’s got a strong hand, I think, in the end, because Republicans still do not have unity about what to do.”
Heilemann touted the usual liberal talking point that the Republicans must have an alternative if the Supreme Court rules against ObamaCare and that, as of now, the Republicans have no plan:
I mean having spent, now, years telling the base they want to repeal and tear down ObamaCare, if this adverse ruling comes out – the Supreme Court says on this what is basically a technicality that they’re gonna throw the entire health care system into chaos, Republicans are gonna be, it’s gonna be incumbent on them to have an alternative. And that is the one thing Republicans have not had through this entire time. Where they hate Obamacare, but they can’t put forward anything like an alternative that’s as solid as ObamaCare.
The conversation between Heilemann and Halperin hit on virtually every single point liberals critique conservatives for on ObamaCare. The President is right on the facts. Check. The Republicans have no alternative. Check. The Republicans are responsible if the Supreme Court rules against the federal subsidies. Check. The media has, time after time, been more than willing to stick to the president's narrative on health care.
The relevant transcript is below.
Bloomberg
With All Due Respect
June 8, 2015
5:05 p.m. EasternJOHN HEILEMANN, host: Germany has quite the lineup this week. Jeb is going there, and apparently his opening act is President Obama, who took questions after a G7 meeting in Bavaria today. He was asked about the Supreme Court ruling soon on ObamaCare and he projected uber-confidence that the Court won’t rule against it and him. To support his argument, he used a handful of things that the White House would call facts. But are those claims actually factually true, or just truthy? Let’s take a listen.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: What’s more, the thing’s working. You’ve got 16 million people who have gotten health insurance. An overwhelming majority of them are satisfied with the health insurance. It hasn't had an adverse effect on people who already had health insurance. The only affect it’s had on people who already had insurance is they now have an assurance that they won’t be prevented from getting health insurance if
they have a pre-existing condition. And they have got additional protections with the health insurance that they do have. The costs have come in substantially lower than even our estimates about how much it would cost. Health care inflation overall has continued to be at some of the lowest levels in 50 years. None of the predictions about how this wouldn’t work have come to pass.
HEILEMANN: Okay Mark, so we wondered about how true those things were, so we asked Bloomberg’s Alex Wayne, who has covered health care, and he said for the most part the things the president said about the Affordable Care Act are true, or at least mostly true. I'm sure the RNC will disagree with that and a lot of conservatives will claim that these numbers are all cooked in one way or the other, but the fact is that those things seem to ring true to the people who know most about health care policy. So, given those facts, how strong is President Obama's hand if he gets an adverse ruling from the Supreme Court?
MARK HALPERIN, host: I think it is still pretty strong, compared to how it might be. I mean, look, there are still questions about rising premiums. You still meet people in the private sector, small business, large business, who do not like the Affordable Care Act, but the poll numbers suggest that the people who have it like it. It has grown well. The costs are not so far, overall, exploding. So I think he’s got a strong hand, I think, in the end, because Republicans still do not have unity about what to do. They may just have to say, look, we’re going to fight this out in the election. We’re gonna extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies to people in the federal exchange.
HEILEMANN: Well, yes. That’s the big thing. President Obama's hand, I think, is strong for the reasons you just said, but it's also the case that the Republicans’ hand is very, very weak. Apart from – I mean having spent, now, years telling the base they want to repeal and tear down ObamaCare, if this adverse ruling comes out – the Supreme Court says on this what is basically a technicality that they’re gonna throw the entire health care system into chaos, Republicans are gonna be, it’s gonna be incumbent on them to have an alternative. And that is the one thing Republicans have not had through this entire time. Where they hate ObamaCare, but they can’t put forward anything like an alternative that’s as solid as ObamaCare.
HALPERIN: It is hard to do at the time. Even the patched – what to do if the Supreme Court rules against the administration. It's hard to come up with a plan without the trigger having already been pulled. I think if the Republicans dominated Supreme Court votes in favor of the president, which the president made clear today he thought they should do and would do, then Republicans are really gonna have to do some soul-searching about the court.
HEILEMANN: Right. And as they say, disarray in the health care market is not going to rebound to the Republicans’ benefit.
