The Supreme Court's surprise decision Thursday upholding the health care law sent shock waves across the political landscape and will force Mitt Romney's campaign to rethink their strategy. Obviously, President Obama's team will declare victory...period.
Republicans in the House now must decide whether they move forward and attempt to repeal the bill. But there's one problem, the votes in the Senate are simply not there to succeed.
Mitt Romney and his team must now be more specific in their plans to overhaul health care and obviously are somewhat tied to the "RomneyCare" plan that he passed when he was governor.
The issue that the Court specified the Congress is empowered to do is to tax Americans and this will be the key phrase going forward: this is a tax bill, not a health bill. The truth is, it already was one of the biggest tax bills in history in spite of the White House's denials.
Raising taxes is still not popular. This bill needs to be fought on those grounds. The question to ask is, who pays for it?!
ObamaCare is still unpopular to a majority of voters in this country and Romney needs to pound the tax message -- and extraordinary cost of this legislation -- home.
The other losers here are the states who are already burdened with Medicaid costs and the Court's decision obviously affects that.
Whether this tips the balance to the President's team for his re-election will depend on how quickly Romney can react and articulate his own plans.
Today, the advantage is definitely for the president and his team. In the end, though, this election is still about jobs and the economy and not health care for all.
Romney and his campaign team need to prove this bill will have a serious impact on the future economy and the taxes to pay for it will slow down any recovery.
The biggest loser in this decision is Chief Justice Roberts who was viewed by conservatives as a hero who could lead a conservative court for many decades.
This decision and his role in deciding it will be his legacy. Siding with the liberals for a majority will make every future decision be questioned. He will now be viewed the same way that Chief Justice Warren, Justice Souter, and Justice Blackmun were -- as mistakes made by the Republican presidents who appointed them. The irony is that Justice Kennedy, who was the least trusted by the conservatives, turned out to be truest to the principals of the conservative movement.