Considering there’s a decent chance SCOTUS will turn off the faucet of federal subsidies to states that refused to set up their own exchange, Paul Ryan says that Republicans must have a contingency plan for the states in question:
THE HILL – House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Friday that one of his top priorities of 2015 would be preparing a Republican backup plan to use if the Supreme Court strikes down part of ObamaCare.
“We have to have a contingency plan,” Ryan told reporters Friday in his first briefing of the new Congress.
The King v. Burwell case, which will likely be decided this spring, threatens to erase ObamaCare subsidies for three-quarters of states. Both parties have acknowledged that the high-stakes case could force a rewrite of the Affordable Care Act.
The case has put pressure on Republicans in particular to come up with a plan in case the subsidies are struck down.“We think we need to have an option, a plan, for these states that might find themselves in this difficult position,” Ryan said.
This is worrisome. Republicans have already given up the power of the purse, so any ‘contingency’ they create in order to get Obama’s signature will likely be far more big government than we would like to see.