Dems fundraise off pending High Court healthcare decision

Democrats are using the Supreme Court’s expected ruling Thursday on President Obama’s healthcare law to raise campaign funds.

The House Democrats’ campaign arm on Wednesday said if the court strikes down Obama’s law, “Democrats will need to redouble our efforts, fighting to ensure universal healthcare that’s affordable and accessible to every American is a reality.”

{mosads}It also warned that a decision against the law means “dangerous Tea Party extremists will go on a rampage.”

The email to supporters from former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) said that if healthcare reform stands after Thursday’s ruling, Republicans “backed by super PACs and shadowy front groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS” will “do everything in their power to defeat President Obama.”

If the GOP wins the election, they will “dismantle the [healthcare] law piece by piece,” the email said.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday morning.

The fundraising email from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) appeared to promise that any related contributions would go to a “Healthcare Rapid Response Fund.”

Addressing supporters, Kennedy also invoked his late father’s work on healthcare issues as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

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“My father, Ted Kennedy, spent his entire political career fighting tooth and nail for universal healthcare,” the younger Kennedy wrote. “If he were here, he would be proud of what we were able to accomplish.”

Kennedy also acknowledged that Democrats will have to “redouble our efforts” for universal health coverage if the Supreme Court rules against the ACA.

The now-retired congressman has helped Democrats raise funds in the past.

In November, he invoked his father and uncles in an appeal for donations for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

“My father and uncles fought to build a society that takes care of the least among us. Yet that social safety net is in imminent danger,” Kennedy wrote.

His uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963, and another uncle, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.), was assassinated five years later.