Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and fellow Democrats made it clear on Sunday that their opposition to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, would focus on the possibility she could cast a decisive vote to strike down the Obamacare health law, Reuters reports.
With Republicans controlling the Senate, Democrats have little leverage to prevent a quick vote on Barrett before the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election and almost no hope of preventing her confirmation.
Instead, their attacks appeared aimed at energizing their political base with an issue that is already a talking point for Biden, who gave a speech on the subject in Wilmington, Delaware.
Barrett could be on the court’s bench for oral arguments on Nov. 10 in a case in which Trump and his Republican allies are seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – the 2010 law popularly known Obamacare. That could cost millions of Americans their healthcare coverage as well as protections for pre-existing health conditions.
“It’s no mystery what is happening here. President Trump is trying to throw out the Affordable Care Act. He has been trying to do this for four years,” Biden said.
In a White House Rose Garden ceremony on Saturday, Trump announced Barrett, 48, as his selection to succeed liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18 at age 87. Barrett said she would be a justice in the mold of her mentor, the late staunch conservative Antonin Scalia, who twice voted in favor of previous unsuccessful Obamacare challenges.
Barrett’s confirmation would result in a 6-3 conservative majority on the court that some conservatives hope could result in curbing abortion rights.
In remarks at the White House on Sunday, Trump charged that Barrett’s critics were playing the “religious card” against her, an implicit suggestion that they were biased against the judge, who is a devout Roman Catholic.
Biden, however, concentrated on the ACA in his remarks in Wilmington, tying the fate of the law to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, in which more than 200,000 Americans have died.
“The clear focus is: This is about your healthcare. This is about whether or not the ACA will exist. This is about whether or not pre-existing conditions will continue to be covered. This is about whether or not a woman can be charged more for the same procedure as a man. This is about people’s healthcare in the middle of a pandemic,” Biden said.
Biden repeated his call that the winner of the presidential election should get to appoint the new justice.
Trump said on Twitter on Sunday that if the Supreme Court strikes down the health law, “Obamacare will be replaced with a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative.” He repeated that contention later at a White House news conference.
Trump failed to repeal Obamacare when Republicans controlled the Senate and House of Representatives. Neither Trump nor Republicans have detailed how they might replace the law.
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