Graham Kicks Off Day Two of SCOTUS Hearings Attacking the Affordable Care Act

Graham Makes It Clear Senate Republicans Are Committed To Striking Down the Popular Health Care Law And Gutting Pre-Existing Conditions Protections

Senator Lindsey Graham kicked off day two of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with “a sustained attack” on the Affordable Care Act, underscoring how the future of the health care law and protections for people with pre-existing conditions are at stake once again.

While some vulnerable Republican incumbents have tried to “play down” “the court’s chances of knocking down some or all” of the ACA, Senator Graham’s opening statement decrying the popular health care law as “a disaster” made it abundantly clear that Senate Republicans still want to strike down the health care law and are rushing to confirm a nominee hostile to the Affordable Care Act in time for the Supreme Court to hear their party’s lawsuit challenging the entire law. If their lawsuit is successful, it would eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions, kick an estimated 20 million Americans off their health insurance, end Medicaid expansion for at least 12 million people, and cut other health care benefits while giving the richest 0.1% a massive tax windfall. 

And while recent polling shows voters in Senate battlegrounds “overwhelmingly disapprove” of the lawsuit, Republicans are still plowing forward with their efforts to gut the popular health care law. Reminder: Republican incumbents and candidates are on record either supporting or refusing to oppose this lawsuit, which helps explain why health care remains a massive “political liability” for the GOP that “could help determine control of the Senate.”

CNN: Sen. Lindsey Graham kicked off today’s hearing by attacking the Affordable Care Act
By Jeremy Herb
October 13, 2020

Key Points:

• Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham kicked off today’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing with a sustained attack on former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, seeking to preempt Democratic criticisms of Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

• “From my point of view, Obamacare has been a disaster for the state of South Carolina,” Graham said. “We want something better. We want something different.”

Wall Street Journal: Graham Begins With Comments on Politics Around Health-Care Law
By Siobhan Hughes
October 13, 2020

Key Points:

• Right out of the gate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) addressed the Democratic messaging from a day earlier to paint the Supreme Court confirmation fight as a battle over the future of the Affordable Care Act.

• He said that this comes up in his election campaign in his home state of South Carolina, and complains that the state gets short shrift under the 2010 health-care law—the same case he has used in debates back home, although now he is making it to a national audience.

• “I want a better deal. And that’s a political fight. I’m in a campaign at home,” Mr. Graham said.

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