Schumer aims to squeeze GOP on Obamacare

Marianne LeVine and Susannah Luthi
·2 min read

It's not often the minority leader takes control of the Senate floor. But that's just what Chuck Schumer did Tuesday.

Schumer moved to set up a vote on legislation that would block the Justice Department from supporting litigation to overturn Obamacare, a rare procedural step for Democrats. The move is a not-so-subtle rebuke of the Trump administration’s backing of a high-stakes lawsuit to strike down the entire law, which is slated to go up before the Supreme Court just one week after Election Day.

And it forces GOP senators to take a likely roll call vote Thursday — a month before the election.

Senate Democrats are making the future of Obamacare a key issue in their fight against confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who President Donald Trump nominated to the Supreme Court Saturday. Barrett, who has strong conservative credentials and is a protegee of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has criticized Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ 2012 decision that saved the law from its first major constitutional challenge.

Democrats and their allies see the framing of Barrett as a threat to the Affordable Care Act as a more potent weapon than her views on abortion. Barrett, a Catholic mother of seven, has called abortion “always immoral.”

But Democrats have been sticking to their talking points about Obamacare, which have guided their election strategy all year. The health care law is more popular than it’s ever been, whereas Americans’ views on abortion are more nuanced.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senate and House Democrats are making the Trump administration’s legal assault on Obamacare a central theme of the 2020 campaign. It’s a near exact replay of the House Democrats’ winning message about protecting coverage of pre-existing conditions after Republicans tried and failed to repeal the ACA and Trump’s Justice Department joined the red state litigation to ax the law.

Senate Republicans are aiming to confirm Barrett ahead of the November 3 election. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case challenging the law on November 10.

Burgess Everett contributed to this story.