President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the Supreme Court ruled on his health care legislation. (AP Photo/Luke Sharrett/Pool)
Supporters of President Barack Obama's
health care law celebrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington,
Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling was announced. AP
Photo/David Goldman)
Carol Anderson
of Williamsburg, Va., holds a cross outside the Supreme Court in
Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling on health
care. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Barack Obama walks back to the Blue Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the Supreme Court ruled on his health care legislation. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/pool)
President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the Supreme Court ruled on his health care legislation. (AP Photo/Luke Sharrett/Pool)
With the Capitol in the background, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks about the Supreme Court's health care ruling, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
With the Capitol in the background, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pauses while speaking about the Supreme Court's health care ruling, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
With the Capitol in the background, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks about the Supreme Court's health care ruling, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law was announced. AP Photo/David Goldman)
A copy of a prepared speech is seen as Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn, not pictured, speaks outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law was announced. AP Photo/David Goldman)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, walks toward the House chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Members of the media run out of the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law was announced. AP Photo/David Goldman)
Claire McAndrew of Washington, left, and Donny Kirsch
of Washington, celebrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington,
Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the courts's ruling on health care. (AP
Photo/Evan Vucci)
Supporters of President Barack Obama's
health care law celebrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington,
Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling. AP Photo/David Goldman)
A journalist runs a copy of the Supreme Court decision on health care to her colleagues, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. relays the breaking news to her staff that the Supreme Court had just upheld the Affordable Care Act, Thursday, June 28, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, was instrumental in helping to pass health care reform in Congress and was at President Obama's side when he signed it into law. At right, Pelosi gives credit to Wendell Primus, a senior policy adviser. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Donny Kirsch of Washington gets a hug as he celebrates the Supreme Court decision on health care, Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Demonstrators
stand outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012,
before the court's ruling on health care. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Supreme Court
stands in the background as people gather outside Thursday, June 28,
2012, in Washington. Saving its biggest case for last, the Supreme Court is expected to announce its verdict Thursday on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
FILE - This Oct. 8, 2010 file photo shows the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court at the Supreme Court in Washington. Seated from left are Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Standing, from left are Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito Jr., and Elena Kagan. The Supreme Court
on Thursday, June 28, 2012, upheld the individual insurance requirement
at the heart of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
The White House is seen in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the Supreme Court ruled on President Barack Obama's health care legislation. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
of Calif., smiles as she watches the breaking news from the Supreme
Court which upheld the Affordable Care Act, Thursday, June 28, 2012 on
Capitol Hill in Washington. Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, was instrumental in helping to pass health care reform in Congress and was at President Obama's side when he signed it into law. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Russell Mokhiber, of Berkeley Springs, W.Va., center, argues in favor of a form of Medicare
for all, as he waits outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday,
June 28, 2012, for a landmark decision on health care. Mokhiber is part of a group that brought belly dancers to the court as they way for the decision. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
William Temple,
of Brunswick, Ga., waits outside the Supreme Court a landmark decision
on health care on Thursday, June 28, 2012 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Tea Party supporter William Temple of Brunswick, Ga., protests against President Barack Obama's
health care law outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June
28, 2012. Saving its biggest case for last, the Supreme Court is
expected to announce ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Protestors
shadows are cast outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday,
June 28, 2012, in Washington, as the Supreme Court is expected to
announce its verdict on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Rachel Del Guidici, 18, of Shreve, Ohio, and others, demonstrate against President Barack Obama's
health care law outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June
28, 2012. Saving its biggest case for last, the Supreme Court is
expected to announce its ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
People
wait on line for passes to enter the Supreme Court in Washington,
Thursday, June 28, 2012. Saving its biggest case for last, the Supreme
Court is expected to announce its ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
The
shadow of an officer is cast as he stands guard on the steps of the
Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012. Saving its biggest
case for last, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Belly dancers Angela Petry, left, and Jennifer Carpenter-Peak,
both of Washington, dance outside the Supreme Court in
Washington,Thursday, June 28, 2012, in Washington, as part of a
demonstration as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
ter the Supreme
Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012. Saving its biggest case
for last, the Supreme Court is expected to announce its verdict Thursday
on President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Demonstrators
pray outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012,
before a landmark decision on health care. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
People who waited in line overnight to hear the Supreme Court on a landmark case on health care hold their belongings as they make their way into the court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A group of belly dancers in favor of Medicare
for all perform outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June
28, 2012, before a landmark decision on health care. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Carol Anderson,
of Williamsburg, Va., holds a cross while waiting in line outside the
Supreme Court to hear a landmark decision on health care on Thursday,
June 28, 2012 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Ivana Hughes,
of Augusta, Ga., waits in line outside the Supreme Court to hear a
landmark decision on health care on Thursday, June 28, 2012 in
Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Journalists
wait outside the Supreme Court for a landmark decision on health care
on Thursday, June 28, 2012 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The
Supreme Court
handed President Obama a major political victory on his signature
health-care issue Thursday, but the justices also provided Republicans
with a sharper campaign issue by defining the law’s individual mandate
as a tax.
The ruling allows Mr. Obama to engage in a
four-month-long victory lap as he campaigns for re-election. And it
validates the president’s decision to devote so much time and energy to
passing the law in 2009 while the economy was in free fall, a divisive
vote that contributed to Democrats losing the House in 2010.
Democrats
didn’t try to hide their “I-told-you-so” reaction to the decision,
although Mr. Obama and some others did try to downplay the political
benefits.
“I know there will be a lot of discussion today about
the politics of all this — about who won and who lost,” Mr. Obama said,
adding that such talk “completely misses the point” of the law’s
benefits.
Rep. Steve Israel,
New York Democrat and chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign
committee, said the ruling “isn’t a political victory for Democrats,
it’s a victory for America’s middle class and seniors, and now House
Republicans need to drop their partisan obstruction and move on.”
But Republicans also saw political opportunity in the ruling.
“It will be a short-lived celebration in the
White House,”
said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “Obama now goes into the fall
campaign defending a law that most Americans think will increase their
health care costs, their premiums, their taxes and the deficit. He
also has to defend raising taxes on all Americans, which he pledged not
to do.”
Sen. Mike Lee,
Utah Republican and a member of the tea party caucus, said Mr. Obama’s
victory will be “fleeting” and argued that most Americans didn’t like
the law’s individual mandate in the first place.
“They’ll like it even less when they understand it’s a tax,”
Mr. Lee said on Fox News.
Mr. Obama and his rival, presumptive
GOP nominee
Mitt Romney, engaged in dueling news conferences within two hours of the
high court’s
decision. The Republican trumped the president by giving his televised
statement nearly a half-hour before the president spoke at the
White House.
“Obamacare was bad policy yesterday, and it’s bad policy today,” said
Mr. Romney, who pledged to repeal it if he’s elected.
Still, the
court’s
decision was a big win for Mr. Obama, who spoke Thursday of the
“courage” behind the legislation and had been citing the law at
campaign rallies as the major achievement of his presidency. If the
justices had overturned the law or key portions of it, Mr. Obama would
have been portrayed as having wasted his term on a demonstrably failed
policy.
The president even joked about that possibility this spring, commenting at the
White House
Correspondents’ annual dinner, “In my first term, we passed health
care reform; in my second term, I guess I’ll pass it again.”
Democratic strategists now are feeling emboldened that the
Supreme Court and conservative Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has aided Mr. Obama’s agenda.
“The late decisions by the
Supreme Court this summer leaves the
GOP’s
agenda in tatters,” said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a think
tank in Washington. “Their efforts to overturn two administration
efforts — immigration and health care reform — have failed. Obama
comes out of this week much stronger, the Republicans weaker. His
first term will now be seen as consequential, their opposition
feckless.”
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