Victoria Advocate from Victoria, Texas • A05

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Friday, June 26, 2015 A5 VictoriaAdvocate.com Health care law survives Texas reaction to US Court's health care law ruling AUSTIN (AP) Reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the nationwide tax subsidies underpinning President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. More than 832,000 Texans will now continue to receive tax credits to help pay for health insurance coverage many would not otherwise be able to afford: "The Supreme Court abandoned the Constitution to resuscitate a failing health care law. Today's action underscores why it is now more important than ever to ensure we elect a President who will repeal Obamacare and enact real health care reforms." Gov. Greg Abbott law and replace it with patient-centered solutions that meet the needs of seniors, small business owners and middle-class families." However, he declined to commit to a vote this year.

Several Republican presidential candidates said they would continue the fight, ensuring it will be an issue in the campaign. Other legal challenges are working their way through the courts, but they appear to pose lesser threats to the law, which passed Congress without a single Republican vote in 2010 and has now withstood two stern challenges at the Supreme Court. At the court, Chief Justice John Roberts again wrote the opinion in support of the law just as he did in 2012. His four liberal colleagues were with him three years ago and again on Thursday. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a dissenter in 2012, was part of the majority this time.

Roberts said to read the law the way challengers wanted limiting tax credits to people who live in states that set up their own health insurance marketplaces would lead to a "calamitous result" Congress could not have intended. "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," Roberts declared in the majority opinion. Justice Antonin Scalia, in a dissent he summarized from the bench, strongly disagreed. "We should start calling this law SCOTUScare," he said, using an acronym for the Supreme Court and suggesting his colleagues' ownership of the law by virtue of their twice stepping in to save it from what he considered wor thy challenges. His comment drew a smile from Roberts, his seatmate and the object of Scalia's ire.

Scalia said Roberts' 2012 decision that upheld the law and his opinion on Thursday "will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others and is prepared to do whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites." Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas joined the dissent as they did in 2012. Nationally, 10.2 million people have signed up for health insurance under the law. That includes 8.7 million who are receiving an average subsidy of $272 a month to help pay their premiums. Of those receiving subsidies, 6.4 million were at risk of losing aid because they live in states that did not set up their own insurance exchanges. The health insurance industry breathed a sigh of relief, and a national organization representing state regulators from both political parties said the court's decision will mean stable markets for consumers.

Shares of publicly traded hospital operators including HCA Holdings Inc. and Tenet Healthcare Corp. soared after the ruling. Investors had worried many patients would drop their coverage if they no longer had tax credits to help pay. The legal case against nationwide subsidies relied on four words "established by the state" in the more than 900-page law.

The law's opponents argued the vast majority of people who now get help paying for premiums are ineligible for their federal tax credits. After second Supreme Court fight, victory, law affecting millions is now president says WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court sent a clear message Thursday President Barack Oba-ma's health care overhaul is here to stay, rejecting a major challenge that would have imperiled the landmark law and health insurance for millions of Americans. Whether you call it the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare or, in the words of a dissenting justice, SCO-TUScare, Obama's signature domestic achievement is, as the president himself put it, "reality" The 6-3 ruling, which upheld financial aid to millions of low- and middle-income Americans to help pay for insurance premiums regardless of where they live, was the second major victory in three years for Oba-ma in politically charged Supreme Court tests of the law And it came on the same day the court gave him an unexpected victory on another subject, preserving a key tool the administration uses to fight housing bias. Obama greeted news of the health care decision by declaring the law is no longer about politics but the benefits millions of people are receiving. "This is no longer about a law," he said in the White House Rose Garden.

"This is health care in America." Declining to concede, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Republicans, who have voted more than 50 times to undo the law, will "continue our efforts to repeal the Abbott Patrick "The Affordable Care Act is broken and a burden to not only Texas but our entire country. This failed federal mandate will continue to bring increased costs to states and individuals. We need more flexibility, not mandates, to improve our health care system." Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick "While today's ruling is disappointing, ig Obamacare remains one of the broadest overreaches of federal authority in our nation's history, and we must continue to 1 call on our leaders in Washington to step up HE and put an end to this job-killing law." Attorney General Ken Paxton Paxton "Today's decision in King v.

Burwell is judicial activism, plain and simple. For the second time in just a few years, a handful of unelected judges has rewritten the text of Obamacare in order to impose this failed law on millions of Americans." U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz Ted Cruz slams 'rogue justices' Other congressional critics of the law registered their unhappiness with the ruling, but few if any employed the tone Cruz used. He said the decision was "judicial activism, plain and simple" and said the court spoke for "nakedly political reasons." As for the six justices who comprised the majority in the decision, he said, "They are lawless, and member that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat." Cruz also said the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist whom Roberts succeeded "would be filled with sorrow at what has become of the Supreme Court of the United States." Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2005, Roberts also referred to Rehnquist, calling him a mentor and friend.

WASHINGTON (AP) -Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz attacked Chief Justice John Roberts and other members of the Supreme Court in unusually harsh terms Thursday, referring to them as "rogue justices" and "robed Houdinis" after a 6-3 decision to uphold President Barack Obama's health care law. Cruz, a Texas senator, did not mention any current high court members by name in remarks on the Senate floor. But his speech included a thinly veiled reference to Roberts, part of the court majority that upheld tax credits that defray the cost of coverage for lower-income individuals nationwide. "These justices are not behaving as umpires calling balls and strikes. They have joined a team," the Texas lawmaker said.

At his Senate confirmation hearing a decade ago, Roberts said, "I will re Perry "While I disagree with the ruling, it was never up to the Supreme Court to save us from Obamacare. We need leadership in the White House that recognizes the folly of having to pass a bill to know what's in it. We need leadership that understands a heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all policy does nothing to help health outcomes for Americans." Former Gov. Rick Perry they hide their prevarica tion in Contours of Obama's legacy form with help of unlikely allies Republican President George W. Bush.

While House Republicans may still hold votes to repeal the health care measure, as they have already done more than 50 times, the Senate and Obama's veto power prevent such efforts from going any further. And even if Obama is succeeded by a Republican president, fully repealing the law could become less politically palatable given the millions of Americans who have gained health care coverage through its mandates. "The 6-3 decision is strong validation of the constitutionality of the law," White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said of the court's ruling. "Coupled with over 16 million people who currently have health care who didn't have it before, that makes it very difficult to unwind." Still, some Republican ASSOCIATED PRESS President Barack Obama arrives in the Rose Garden of the White House on Thursday in to speak after the Supreme Court upheld the subsidies for customers in states that do not operate their own exchanges under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Any future repeal of health care law would be less politically palatable WASHINGTON (AP) -Long past the prime of his presidency, Barack Obama is defying the lame-duck label and solidifying the contours of his legacy with the help of unlikely allies in Congress and the Supreme Court.

Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court preserved Obama's signature health care law Thursday, hours before a Republican -controlled Congress paved the way for an Asia-Pacific trade pact at the center of the president's international agenda. The Supreme Court also handed Obama a surprise win by upholding a key tool used to fight housing discrimination. "This was a good day for America," Obama said, speaking from the White House Rose Garden shortly after the court rulings. For a president deep into his second term, the legal and legislative victories were a vindication of policy priorities that have sapped his political capital and exposed rifts with his own Democratic Party. The back-to-back successes also energized a weary White House, with senior officials and longtime advisers making little effort to hide their glee.

"I don't think that a lot of people expected that a lame-duck president could still very actively lead on every major issue being debated today," said Bill Burton, a former White House and campaign ad viser to Obama. The coming days could bring further clarity to president's legacy as U.S. negotiators work feverishly to finalize a nuclear deal with Iran ahead of a June 30 deadline. While securing an elusive agreement would mark a major foreign policy breakthrough for Obama, it could be months or even years before it's known if a deal successfully prevents Iran from building a bomb. Against the backdrop of his recent successes, Obama will also confront the stark limitations of his presidency when he travels to Charleston, S.C., on Friday to deliver a eulogy for victims of last week's massacre at a black church.

Obama has failed to make any progress on gun control legislation, and even against the backdrop of the tragedy in South Carolina, he made clear he had given up hope of pursuing such measures again during his remaining 19 months in office. Despite the unfinished business Obama will leave behind, Thursday's health care ruling largely answered what has long been one of the biggest questions looming over his White House: Would the sweeping health care overhaul that has fueled so much Republican hostility toward Obama survive his presidency? Now, that answer is all but guaranteed to be yes. The Supreme Court ruling marked the second time the justices have saved the health care law, with Roberts writing the majority opinion both times. In an ironic twist, Obama as a senator voted against Roberts when he was nominated by former Inspiring students to reach their potential by connecting the community to its future, the youth. Culligan Water Citizens Medical Center Direct Development Compadres Ink Eli Sauseda Korczyknski Photography Domino's Pizza Kingdom Dog Ministries Hank Hough Incredible Dog Ministry Hudson's Engraving Gifts Luna Juice Bar Summer Shine Northside Baptist Church MidCoast Family Services Performance Food Group Trust Texas Bank Victoria Television Group O'Connor Hewitt Foundation YMCA Chris Seilkop Sarah Holland Swim, Bike, Run Subway Victoria Public Library Victoria ISO Victoria Advocate Your support for YOUth LEADership Conference 2015 makes all the difference.

SPONSORS: Pioneer Natural Resources HEB Chick-Fil-A Whataburger Coleto Creek Power The Victoria College presidential candidates insisted that remained their goal. "This decision is not the end of the fight against Obamacare," said Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor. "I will work with Congress to repeal and replace this flawed law with conservative reforms that empower consumers with more choices and control over their health care decisions." Obama had to flip Washington's standard political scorecard in order to get support for the Asia-Pacific trade pact. While Republicans are largely supportive of free trade, many of Obama's fellow Democrats fear such agreements put American workers at a disadvantage and have weak environmental protections..