CNN contributor Ezekiel Emanuel said on “New Day” Monday that a recent court ruling declaring Obamacare unconstitutional “defies constitutional logic.”
“That is a ridiculous ruling and you don’t have to rely on a doctor like me,” Dr. Emanuel said. “Lots of conservative legal scholars think it’s a silly ruling. The main logic there is the mandate is so essential to the law that nothing in the law can stand without the mandate.”
A federal judge in Texas ruled Obamacare’s individual mandate to be unconstitutional Friday and said it can no longer be viewed as a congressional tax. (RELATED: Indiana AG Says Obamacare Ruling Gives Congress Another Shot At Fixing Health Care)
“[The] Individual Mandate can no longer be fairly read as an exercise of Congress’s Tax Power and is still impermissible under the Interstate Commerce Clause — meaning the Individual Mandate is unconstitutional,” District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in his decision.
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“And the reason you know it’s a silly ruling is we haven’t had a mandate with any enforceability since we passed the tax law because there’s no penalty anymore and much of the law is going forward. Laws like changing how doctors are being paid, improving the quality in hospitals, investing in better workforce for the health care system,” Emanuel continued.
Emanuel also said Obamacare, former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, shouldn’t have to live and die with the individual mandate and predicted the judge’s ruling will not be upheld.
“I like to say to my students that the Affordable Care Act is 906 pages long. The enrollment or coverage sections are only 225 pages, less than a quarter of that and the part dealing with the mandate and the exchanges are even smaller,” said Emanuel, who is a former Obama White House adviser. He added:
“There’s plenty of the bill that has nothing to do with the mandate and that’s why this ruling by this judge will not be upheld. It’s a very silly ruling and does not — it sort of defies constitutional logic.”
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