Here are his exact words...............
"Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority ofriend a democratically elected Congress," Obama said at a news conference with the leaders of Canada and Mexico.
Seven is not a LARGE majority in anybody's book unless your group only consists of 10.
I asked you about the "CONTEXT" of what OBAMA says, not the extrapolated version of sound bites carefully cut to make what he said sound horrible.
THIS is how he started the conversation:
"I actually continue to be confident that the Supreme Court will uphold the law. And the reason is, because in accordance with precedent out there, it's constitutional.
"
That's not just my opinion by the way. That's the opinion of legal experts across the ideological spectrum,
including two very conservative appellate court justices that said this wasn't even a close case."
"I think it's important - because I watched some of the commentary last week - to remind people that this is not an abstract argument. People's lives are affected by the lack of availability of healthcare, the inaffordability of healthcare, their inability to get healthcare because of preexisting conditions.
"The law that's already in place has already given 2.5 million young people healthcare that wouldn't otherwise have it. There are tens of thousands of adults with preexisting conditions who have healthcare right now because of this law. Parents don't have to worry about their children not being able to get healthcare because they can't be prevented from getting healthcare as a consequence of a preexisting condition. That is part of this law.
"Millions of seniors are paying less for prescription drugs because of this law. Americans all across the country have greater rights and protections with respect to the insurance companies, and are getting preventive care because of this law.
"So, that's just the part that's already been implemented. That doesn't speak to the 30 million people who stand to gain coverage once it's fully implemented in 2014.
"And I think it's important, I think the American people understand and I think the justices should understand that in the absence of an individual mandate, you cannot have a mechanism to ensure that people with preexisting conditions can actually get healthcare.
"So there's not only an economic element to this and a legal element to this but there's a human element to this, and I hope that's not forgotten in this political debate. Ultimately I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically-elected Congress.
"
And I'd just remind conservative commentators that for years what we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. That an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example, and I'm pretty confident this court will recognize that and not take that step."
(In response to follow up question)
"I'm confident this will be upheld because it should be upheld. And again, that's not just my opinion, that's the opinion of a whole lot of constitutional law professors and academics and judges and lawyers who've examined this law, even if they're not particularly sympathetic to this particular piece of legislation or my presidency." (end quote)
Now what he was saying in this last paragraph was a
reminder to the FOX news, RUSH Limbaughs of the right wing who have for three years complained of judicial activism on the bench and USED THEIR VERY ARGUMENT OF THE RIGHT WING AGAINST
THEM, and NOT AGAINST THE SUPREME COURT JUSTICES.
He didnt make an all out attack on the supreme court, instead, he made it clear that the RIGHT WING has made claims of UNELECTED GROUPS OF PEOPLE changing laws against democratically elected officials wishes.
Its pretty clear what he was talking about. He furthers by saying that this case was an EXAMPLE, and an EXAMPLE of the RIGHT WINGS POSITIONS.
What did you miss? FOX news can slice and dice his words and leave out this most important Caveat to make it appear worse than what it was, but it falls flat when you keep it in
CONTEXT.Peace
TOS
