“When you’re rooting for a loss, what are you really standing for?”
Indiana Republicans have a Supreme Court problem.
This month the U.S. Supreme Court is set to announce their decisions on two landmark cases: King v. Burwell and Obergefell v. Hodges.
The first is yet another challenge to President Obama’s signature domestic policy accomplishment, the Affordable Care Act, and the other will finally bring about a constitutional decision regarding same-sex marriage.
In both of these cases, party lines separate the two legal sides, but in a strange turn of political events, Republicans may be ?hoping to lose both cases. And in Indiana, this political conundrum is likely to be even more pronounced than it is nationwide.
Conventional thinking suggests when your state’s Republican Attorney General is one of the people who brought the challenge in the first place, supported by Republican Gov. Pence, who has long fought against the ACA, Republicans in Indiana would be hoping to win the challenge — and ultimately, most probably are.
Their concern here, though, is what will be the political fallout?
The Indy Star reported earlier this week many ?premiums offered through the ACA federal exchange — which could be closed down if the law’s challengers are successful later this month, ending millions of subsidies nationwide — are expected to decline once again.
Additionally, they report if the SCOTUS challenge is successful, the average Hoosier’s premium is expected to increase an eye-popping 271 percent, and nearly 180,000 people in Indiana will lose their subsidies — and potentially their health insurance altogether.
And what is the governor’s stand on ?creating state exchange for Indiana to mitigate ?the damage? He doesn’t ?want to.
So, at a time when Gov. Pence and Indiana Republicans are already under fire for missteps regarding the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and their public feud with Superintendent Glenda Ritz, hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers may lose their insurance or see premiums skyrocket because of a challenge he ?supports.
This is not a recipe for success in politics. A loss in court not only lets the issue remain a part of the debate with no consequences, but it may stop a final nail from being driven into ?Gov. Pence’s political coffin.
Then there is the question of marriage equality — the issue which started it all for the governor.
There is little doubt that Pence himself supports “traditional” marriage, but he would surely like to put the issue behind him in the upcoming election after the RFRA has gained him ?national infamy.
Success for his party in court, though, will bring the issue front and center once again and reestablish Gov. Pence squarely on the wrong side of history.
So, for his political sake, a loss in the Burwell case preserves his talking points — and Hoosier wallets — and a loss in the marriage equality case lets him put the issue behind him.
All this begs one important question: When you’re rooting for a loss, what are you really standing for?
thompjak@indiana.edu
