By Eddie D. Gillis

This may be the last gasp for Republicans to rid the nation of the Affordable Care Act, if as expected that Judge Amy Coney Barrett becomes the newest addition on the nation’s Supreme Court. Republicans have said that the ACA is unlawful and has found judges through the appeal system, who have ruled that the ACA should be done away with. Never mind the fact that Republicans have tried over seventy times to repeal the ACA, but Democrats were able to turn them back. Their last hope before the 2020 election is in Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who has said in her view that Obamacare “must go”, criticizing the Roberts led Court when they ruled against Republican led efforts to give former president Barack Obama a stinging defeat to his legacy. When Donald Trump ran as a candidate, he vowed to get rid of the ACA without knowing anything about it, only repeating what he heard. Even when he had Republicans in control of Congress during the first two years of his term, Republicans failed in their efforts, as it didn’t really matter because it would become a continuing campaign funding raising issue for them. In Amy Coney Barrett, Republicans believe that when the case comes before the Supreme Court a few days after the election, Barrett through a swift confirmation hearing will hear the case and rule on it. At the opening day (Mon. Oct. 12) of her confirmation hearing, Republicans hardly mentioned the ACA, but instead attacked Democrats for bringing attention to Barrett’s potential role of helping destroying the ACA and taking away healthcare from millions of Americans. Nonetheless Democrats clearly are speaking as one on healthcare, as many of them had presentations showing pictures of a cross section of America who has benefitted from the coverage of the ACA.

Now, many are saying that Republicans want the Court to do what they couldn’t do legislatively. Or didn’t want to do through the legislative process. Their argument is that the individual mandate which said that people must acquire health insurance or pay a tax. In later years that tax would be done away with by Republicans and now they are arguing that by having no penalty “for failing to comply” with the individual mandate, the ACA as a whole is no longer constitutional because the mandate “is essential” to the law. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and sent the case beck to a lower court to see if there could be a severing, taking out what was unconstitutional in the law, but not the whole law. Republicans could if they wanted to, could come up with a legislative solution that the courts could approve, but they want it all. They want to destroy Barack Obama’s signature legacy in the ACA led by President Trump who only a week ago got the kind of treatment that could be denied millions, including conservatives who(surprise)get sick. President Trump has promised that he will “come up” with a beautiful plan that will cover preexisting conditions and other components of the ACA, only he hasn’t revealed his life saving plan.

Republicans want to push Barrett through quickly because they are not confident that President Trump will win reelection. They read the polls knowing that everything that Trump and his supporters throw at Joe Biden; the president and even the Senate is in trouble. They know that if Biden wins and the Senate changes to Democrat, there will hardly be another conservative who will sit on the Supreme Court. That is in addition that Republicans are not comfortable with the 5-3 majority on the Court because they “don’t trust” Chief Justice John Roberts who suddenly is not a darling by conservatives due to recent rulings that went against the Trump administration. Republicans know that with eight justices on the Court, Roberts could vote with the liberal judges in a 4-4 tie that would make the law unconstitutional, but would only affect Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, not the whole nation. Barrett would make the Court’s makeup a 6-3 one, essentially an “insurance policy” just in case Roberts sides with the liberals, still giving the Trump administration a narrow 5-4 victory. No one knows how the Court will rule, but Barrett is under a lot of pressure to deliver for Republicans, even as she knows of the stories from countless Americans who would not be alive if not for the benefits of the ACA. President Trump doesn’t care about what happens to people’s health. The question is, does Amy Coney Barrett care. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.