In a rare move, a Republican governor said the Supreme Court should uphold Obamacare against a major legal challenge that threatens to unravel the law by wiping out federal exchange subsidies in nearly three-dozen states.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said that although he opposes Obamacare, a defeat for the law in court would cause “a lot of turmoil” and leave states like his “scrambling,” according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
“If on June 30, if that’s when the case comes down, and they say no more subsidies for federal exchanges … it is going to cause a lot of turmoil,” he said at a press conference, as quoted by the paper. “Not just for the state, and for those people, but for the private sector as well.”
Mead added: “We will see what the decision is, and if the Supreme Court upholds the federal government’s position, that is one thing. If they don’t, I think we will be one of many, many states that will be scrambling, trying find an answer and seeing whether Congress can provide the statutory fix that would be needed.”
Some Republican policy aides privately worry about the implications of such a ruling, given the enormous difficulty of passing a “fix” through Congress. But publicly Republicans overwhelmingly say the lawsuit should succeed. A decision in the case, King v. Burwell, is expected by the end of June.