Attorney General William P. Barr distanced himself Tuesday from the potential fallout of a lawsuit threatening Obamacare, testifying he took a defensible legal position and it’s not his job to forge health policy.
Democrats are pressing the Trump administration to explain why it reversed course and refused to defend any part of the 2010 law against the state-driven challenge, which says Congress’ decision to gut the “individual mandate” to hold insurance makes the rest of the program unconstitutional.
The Justice Department previously argued a limited slice of the Affordable Care Act — protections for people with preexisting conditions — should fall.
“We’re in litigation. We have to take a position,” Mr. Barr told Rep. Matt Cartwright, who grilled him at a Capitol Hill budget hearing. “If you think it’s such an outrageous position, you have nothing to worry about. Let the courts do their job.”
Mr. Cartwright said President Trump, through Mr. Barr, is flirting with potential chaos, since Republicans have not prepared a feasible alternative in case coverage provisions in Obamacare are eliminated.
“Your premise, that the Justice Department makes health care policy, is simply wrong,” Mr. Barr testified. “We take legal positions in cases.”
Yet Mr. Cartwright pressed the attorney general, citing reports that Mr. Barr and other top officials thought Mr. Trump was going too far in his full-fledged support for the lawsuit.
A Texas judge already struck down Obamacare as unconstitutional, so provisions that cover millions of Americans would disappear if the ruling is upheld on appeal.
Mr. Barr refused to discuss internal deliberations over the administration’s stance, which took on bolder proportions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
“I had ample opportunity to present my views, and I believe that the final decision reached is a legally defensible and legally reasonable position,” Mr. Barr said. “It is a position that prevailed in the district court.”
Mr. Barr pointed to the dissent from four justices in the landmark 2012 Supreme Court case on Obamacare. They, too, felt the individual mandate had to work in conjunction with the law’s other provisions.
Attorneys for blue states appealing the Texas ruling say the lawsuit is misguided, because Congress intentionally left the rest of Obamacare alone when it attacked the individual mandate in the GOP tax overhaul.
They also stress the potential consequences of striking down the entire law, from zapping the expansion of Medicaid in dozens of states to no longer allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26.
Mr. Cartwright highlighted those potential outcomes, suggesting Mr. Barr and the GOP would be responsible for the lack of a Plan B if Obamacare is zeroed out.
“I’m dismayed to hear you’re willing to drive our health care system off the cliff with no plan for replacing it,” Mr. Cartwright said.
The congressman pressed Mr. Barr to support a stay of any ruling against Obamacare until Congress forges new protections, since Mr. Trump has decided to punt GOP work on health reform until after the 2020 election.
Mr. Barr said the Supreme Court might do that on their own, providing “some kind of period to wind it down.”
One plaintiff state, Wisconsin, says it no longer wants to be involved in the saga. The Fifth Circuit issued an order Tuesday allowing it to withdraw from the suit.
Republicans in the state legislature passed lame-duck laws that would have thwarted Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, from fulfilling his campaign push to pull out of the case, though the courts invalidated the GOP gambit.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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