Trump administration asks Supreme Court to axe Obamacare
In the midst of a global pandemic, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care act, which has provided health insurance to millions of Americans.
In a late night filing on Thursday, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued that the health care law - also called Obamacare - became invalid after the previous, Congress in 2017 scrapped the penalty for failing to purchase health insurance.
Adding that the other provisions of Obamacare are impossible to separate from the individual mandate and therefore the entire law must 'fall'.
The legal push is sure to ignite a political debate over health care amid an election season and a pandemic that has left millions out of work and many unemployed Americans without healthcare coverage.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump's Democratic challenger, Former Vice President Joe Biden, lashed out at the president for continuing to support upending the law.
"I think it's cruel. It's heartless, it's callous. It's all because, in my view, he can't abide the thought of letting stand one of President Obama's greatest achievements - the Affordable Care Act."
Republicans view the law as excessive government intrusion into the healthcare market and since his 2016 campaign, President Trump pledged that he would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a different plan.
In 2017, they failed to do either while the GOP controlled both Congress and the White House.
