Obama Regime Knew Some ObamaCare Subsidies Illegal

by JASmius

This is news?:

The recent ruling by the D.C. Circuit that the implementation of Obamacare is illegal has uncovered the possibility that the Obama administration was aware of this all along, Politico Magazine reported.

The Halbig v. Burwell lawsuit ruled that the [Una]ffordable Care[-Less] Act does not allow for Obamacare to provide subsidized health insurance for the 5 million Americans living in the thirty-six states using the federal healthcare website, healthcare.gov.

Instead, the legislation stipulated that subsidies would be extended only to those who enroll through an exchange "established by a state."

The administration, including Jonathan Gruber, who helped craft the ACA legislation, has insisted since the ruling that Congress never intended to withhold subsidies from residents of states that did not choose to set up their own exchanges.

Gruber, an MIT economist, described the ruling as "implausible," "screwy," "nutty," and "stupid."

But a 2012 video has since surfaced indicating that Gruber told an audience, "If you're a state and you don't set up an exchange, that means your citizens don't get their tax credits."

Another 2012 recording has also emerged of Gruber making similar comments, both of which may have been an attempt to try to "squeeze" the states into establishing their own exchanges, according to Politico.

Politico said Gruber's 2012 comments "demolish" the administration's case against Halbig.

"When the chief architect of the [Affordable Care Act] admits it withholds tax credits in uncooperative states, that establishes that the plaintiffs' interpretation of the statute in Halbig was not only plausible but that it had currency among the law's authors," Politico said.

It's no more complicated than this, folks: In the euphoria of the first biennium of O's rule, the Obamunist Left thought that all fifty-seven states would be slobberingly eager to sign up and create their own exchanges, and if any state poobahs failed to do so, those states' citizens would rise up in rabidly raging rebellion against them and demand that they reverse their seditious conduct and get with the program.  Which is why O-Care was specifically written to provide federal subsidies exclusively to O-Care policies purloined on "state exchanges".  They never imagined it possible that nearly three quarters of the states would refuse to play ball and make the Regime do almost all the exchange work itself.  Which is why The One had his IRS legislate the rule that the D.C. Circuit struck down in Halbig allowing subsidies on healthcare.gov policies as well.  They knew that the walls would come a-tumblin' down otherwise, so they just re-wrote that portion of the UCLA themselves.  They knew it was "illegal"; they just didn't give a bleep.

Hell, it's not like King Hussein hasn't done this sort of thing dozens of other times, and won't now simply re-decree the stricken IRS rule.  Remember, in the minds of Obamunists, "illegal" means anything that goes against the will of Barack Hussein Obama.  Which means, all of us are officially "illegal".  Except the "illegals," of course; they're officially "refugees".  Or "citizens," if O ever rouses himself from his slugger to cut to the proverbial "fundamental transformation" chase.  Which means they'll get all the federal O-Care subsidies, of course.