Conservatives are engaged in an interesting intramural debate over National Federation of Independent Business, et al. v. Sebelius—the
Obama-care case. But whether they think Chief Justice Roberts deserves
hearty praise or contemptuous blame or any of the countless permutations
in between, whether they love the Obama-care ruling or hate it, here’s
the key short-term fact: Conservatives are now set up for a political
triumph far sweeter than any contentious win in the courts. The path
forward is clear, and conservatives can surely unite behind the
indispensable next step: win this election, and repeal Obama-care
through the political process.
And
of course this won’t be merely a short-term victory. Not only is
Obama-care the most important issue in the upcoming election, its
survival or repeal is crucial to the fate of freedom and prosperity in
the decades to come.
The good news is that Obama-care is the issue that most
benefits Mitt Romney. Seemingly sensing his weakness on this crucial
point, President Obama has tried to suggest to the American people that
the matter is no longer theirs to decide. With no shortage of hubris, he
declared a week after the ruling that “the law I passed”—note the first
person—“is here to stay.” When asked a few days earlier by Chris
Wallace whether Obama-care “must clear another hurdle in the November
election” (which of course it must), the president’s chief of staff Jack
Lew replied, “You know, Chris, one thing that’s great about our system
is that when the Supreme Court rules, we have a final answer.”
But the Court explicitly reaffirms in its opinion that
“policy judgments . . . are entrusted to our Nation’s elected leaders,
who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them.” It
also declares that, when it comes to the “wisdom” of Obama-care, “that
judgment is reserved to the people.”
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