Bryan Fischer
Why Obama hopes he'll lose at the Supreme Court
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Pundits have been puzzled that President Obama expedited the legal challenges to ObamaCare. Because he refused to ask for an en banc hearing from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last fall, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on ObamaCare next week, and is expected to issue a ruling late this summer.
The president could have strung out the judicial process so that a resolution would not come until after the election, but he instead chose a course that will result in a decision right in the middle of the presidential campaign. He is obviously gambling that the Supreme Court ruling will work in his favor in the run-up to November.
As I suggested in a column at the time, I believe that the president is actually secretly hoping for a defeat at the hands of the Supremes. He knows how grossly unpopular ObamaCare is. Poll after poll reveal that an unshakeable majority of the American people want this thing repealed, and a poll released just in the last week indicates that 72% of the American people think his abortifacient mandate is unconstitutional.
Health care companies are already spending hundreds of millions of dollars in preparation for this monstrosity to go into full effect. Those costs, quite obviously, will be passed along to consumers, meaning that ObamaCare is already radically bending the cost curve upward. The CBO has determined that the program will cost twice what Obama told us it would when it passed.
The second anniversary of the passage of ObamaCare is today. It is quite telling that the president has held no celebrations, no parties, not even so much as a press conference to trumpet the signature legislative accomplishment of his misbegotten regime. It's clear that he himself sees this thing as a liability, an albatross around his neck he'd just as soon be free of.
I believe he is counting on the Supreme Court to cut this anvil loose from him before it drags him to the bottom of the sea. In fact, I believe he knows that losing at the Supreme Court level is his only hope of re-election. And so he's hoping that the Supremes will do his dirty work for him.
The conventional thinking all along has been that he would try to string out the legal process as long as possible since he would be afraid of losing at the Supreme Court level, and would want to postpone the day of judgment as long as possible.
But I think the truth of the matter is that he wants to lose at the Supreme Court level because it represents his only chance to win in November.
Everything is political with this president, everything a matter of political calculation. He has obviously concluded that it is in his personal political interest to get a ruling from SCOTUS before he has to face voters at the polls.
If he loses, which he anticipates he will, then his campaign theme is simple: evil Republicans and their evil minions at the Supreme Court are denying you access to free health care, access that I, Barack the Benevolent, tried to give you. You must re-elect me to stop these evil rich fat cats so that I can appoint more empathetic judges to the Supreme Court so you can get the health care that the dastardly and stingy and greedy Republicans don't want you to have.
It's a desperation move, for sure, but it is the only play he has. He has no record to run on. The economy is still in the tank, the longevity of unemployment is at record levels, and gas prices are through the roof.
He can read the polls like everyone else, and he knows his support is plummeting even in his own base. Blacks are growing increasingly restive, gay activists want him to drop his sham support for natural marriage, 44% of the Marines are dissatisfied with him as their commander in chief, Jews have problems with his clear distaste for the state of Israel, and young people are leaving him in droves because he has so trashed economy that they can't find jobs and are stuck living with their parents in the basement.
A defeat of ObamaCare at the Supreme Court level is his only prayer of victory. This is his Hail Mary pass.
Now Obama is smart enough to figure out that he can use this even if he wins at the Supreme Court. If he wins, his campaign plan is simple: look what I gave you. The evil Republicans tried to deny you your God-given right to have other people pay for your health care, but I, Barack the Magnificent, saved you from their clutches.
This, however, is the less attractive of the two options, for the simple reason that Obama knows the majority of the American people and the majority of doctors hate ObamaCare and by significant margins want it repealed. So a win for him at the Supreme Court makes the mountain he must climb even higher and that's the last thing he needs.
He wants to lose so he can play the grievance card, the class warfare card and the race card. He will hint that it's not just evil Republicans who want you to die but evil rich white Republicans, because they hate the poor and don't like the color of your skin. The campaign slogans and advertisements practically write themselves.
Rush Limbaugh stumbled across my column from last fall, was intrigued by my thesis, and discussed it at length in one of his programs. He subsequently rejected my theory because he doesn't think Obama is smart enough to figure this out. He thinks the strategy I've laid out is just a tad too sophisticated for a man of Obama's intellectual limitations. We'll see.
On a side note, this whole farce of ObamaCare illustrates just how far we have strayed from our constitutional moorings. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution provides no authorization whatsoever for the federal government to manage the nation's health care system. None. But we are now at the sad and pathetic place that one man — Anthony Kennedy — will be deciding health care policy for all 310 million Americans. That, my friends, is the very definition of tyranny.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
March 24, 2012
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Pundits have been puzzled that President Obama expedited the legal challenges to ObamaCare. Because he refused to ask for an en banc hearing from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last fall, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on ObamaCare next week, and is expected to issue a ruling late this summer.
The president could have strung out the judicial process so that a resolution would not come until after the election, but he instead chose a course that will result in a decision right in the middle of the presidential campaign. He is obviously gambling that the Supreme Court ruling will work in his favor in the run-up to November.
As I suggested in a column at the time, I believe that the president is actually secretly hoping for a defeat at the hands of the Supremes. He knows how grossly unpopular ObamaCare is. Poll after poll reveal that an unshakeable majority of the American people want this thing repealed, and a poll released just in the last week indicates that 72% of the American people think his abortifacient mandate is unconstitutional.
Health care companies are already spending hundreds of millions of dollars in preparation for this monstrosity to go into full effect. Those costs, quite obviously, will be passed along to consumers, meaning that ObamaCare is already radically bending the cost curve upward. The CBO has determined that the program will cost twice what Obama told us it would when it passed.
The second anniversary of the passage of ObamaCare is today. It is quite telling that the president has held no celebrations, no parties, not even so much as a press conference to trumpet the signature legislative accomplishment of his misbegotten regime. It's clear that he himself sees this thing as a liability, an albatross around his neck he'd just as soon be free of.
I believe he is counting on the Supreme Court to cut this anvil loose from him before it drags him to the bottom of the sea. In fact, I believe he knows that losing at the Supreme Court level is his only hope of re-election. And so he's hoping that the Supremes will do his dirty work for him.
The conventional thinking all along has been that he would try to string out the legal process as long as possible since he would be afraid of losing at the Supreme Court level, and would want to postpone the day of judgment as long as possible.
But I think the truth of the matter is that he wants to lose at the Supreme Court level because it represents his only chance to win in November.
Everything is political with this president, everything a matter of political calculation. He has obviously concluded that it is in his personal political interest to get a ruling from SCOTUS before he has to face voters at the polls.
If he loses, which he anticipates he will, then his campaign theme is simple: evil Republicans and their evil minions at the Supreme Court are denying you access to free health care, access that I, Barack the Benevolent, tried to give you. You must re-elect me to stop these evil rich fat cats so that I can appoint more empathetic judges to the Supreme Court so you can get the health care that the dastardly and stingy and greedy Republicans don't want you to have.
It's a desperation move, for sure, but it is the only play he has. He has no record to run on. The economy is still in the tank, the longevity of unemployment is at record levels, and gas prices are through the roof.
He can read the polls like everyone else, and he knows his support is plummeting even in his own base. Blacks are growing increasingly restive, gay activists want him to drop his sham support for natural marriage, 44% of the Marines are dissatisfied with him as their commander in chief, Jews have problems with his clear distaste for the state of Israel, and young people are leaving him in droves because he has so trashed economy that they can't find jobs and are stuck living with their parents in the basement.
A defeat of ObamaCare at the Supreme Court level is his only prayer of victory. This is his Hail Mary pass.
Now Obama is smart enough to figure out that he can use this even if he wins at the Supreme Court. If he wins, his campaign plan is simple: look what I gave you. The evil Republicans tried to deny you your God-given right to have other people pay for your health care, but I, Barack the Magnificent, saved you from their clutches.
This, however, is the less attractive of the two options, for the simple reason that Obama knows the majority of the American people and the majority of doctors hate ObamaCare and by significant margins want it repealed. So a win for him at the Supreme Court makes the mountain he must climb even higher and that's the last thing he needs.
He wants to lose so he can play the grievance card, the class warfare card and the race card. He will hint that it's not just evil Republicans who want you to die but evil rich white Republicans, because they hate the poor and don't like the color of your skin. The campaign slogans and advertisements practically write themselves.
Rush Limbaugh stumbled across my column from last fall, was intrigued by my thesis, and discussed it at length in one of his programs. He subsequently rejected my theory because he doesn't think Obama is smart enough to figure this out. He thinks the strategy I've laid out is just a tad too sophisticated for a man of Obama's intellectual limitations. We'll see.
On a side note, this whole farce of ObamaCare illustrates just how far we have strayed from our constitutional moorings. Article I Section 8 of the Constitution provides no authorization whatsoever for the federal government to manage the nation's health care system. None. But we are now at the sad and pathetic place that one man — Anthony Kennedy — will be deciding health care policy for all 310 million Americans. That, my friends, is the very definition of tyranny.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
