OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Republicans turn against Roberts

by Sam Baker and Elise Viebeck - 07/16/12 10:30 PM ET

Republicans have soured on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts since he cast the deciding vote to uphold President Obama’s healthcare law in June. A new Gallup survey released Monday found that only 27 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of the chief justice, down from 67 percent in 2005, when then-President George W. Bush nominated him to the high court.

The healthcare case wasn’t the first controversial ruling from the Roberts court — he was in the majority in the Citizens United campaign-finance ruling — but the steep drop among Republicans seems to indicate that healthcare is largely to blame.

{mosads}Only 4 percent of Republicans reported an unfavorable view of Roberts in 2005, which shot up to 44 percent in the most recent Gallup poll. GOP voters are also much more negative on the court as an institution — 64 percent said they disapprove of the way the court is doing its job, compared with only 32 percent who disapproved in 2005.

The survey results are here, and The Hill’s writeup is here.

{mosads}The findings are in line with an earlier survey from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. That survey found that 51 percent of self-identified Republicans have an unfavorable view of the Supreme Court.

Subsidy strategy: Conservatives see new promise in their criticism over how the Obama administration is implementing new subsidies to help people buy insurance. The IRS has said subsidies will be available in state exchanges and the federally run fallback. But Republicans say that’s an illegal policy, because the Affordable Care Act refers to “an exchange established by the state.” So far, this debate has been mostly carried out in dueling press releases, but a new white paper says the “state exchange” phrasing could be the cornerstone of a new legal challenge to the health law.

Two conservative healthcare experts — Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, and Michael Cannon, a scholar at the Cato Institute — said lawsuits could be filed by employers, who are subject to the law’s employer mandate and must pay a penalty if their workers receive government subsidies. Read the white paper here.

Not so toxic: After barely winning reelection in 2010, Rep. Gerry
Connolly (D-Va.) is still a proud supporter of the Affordable Care Act.
While many of Connolly’s Democratic colleagues ran away from the law or
chose not to talk about it, he’s unwavering.

“I’m unapologetic about it,” Connolly told The Hill. “I am running on it. I am proud of my vote for the law.”

Connolly barely survived the GOP wave of 2010, winning reelection by
just 981 votes. But after that win, and redistricting that has worked in
his favor, Connolly is now considered relatively safe, challenging the
conventional wisdom that healthcare is a liability for congressional
Democrats.

Healthwatch has more on Connolly’s continued defense of the healthcare law.

Social Security soars: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, criticized President Obama on Monday after a new report found a large jump in the number of people receiving disability benefits under Social Security.

Sessions said the increase is placing an added burden on Medicare. People who receive disability payments for two consecutive years are automatically enrolled in Medicare. The program spent $80 billion in 2011 on people who receive disability payments, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

“The growing number of people on disability and other federal benefits, combined with weak economic growth, raises serious concerns about the sustainability of the American economy,” Sessions said in a statement.

No show: President Obama will not participate in the 19th International AIDS Conference, though Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will. The 20,000-person event will take place in Washington, D.C., from July 22-27 — the first time it has happened in the United States since Obama lifted a 22-year-old ban on visas for people with the disease in 2010. AIDS researches and advocates signaled earlier this month that lifting the ban was not enough to prove Obama’s commitment to the cause, and his choice not to attend next week’s conference could make matters worse. The president will provide a pre-recorded welcome video for the conference, according to a release, and the White House will host a special reception for the event on July 26.

Averting risk: Federal regulators have approved the first drug to reduce the risk of HIV infection among people likely to be exposed to the virus. The landmark move extends the approval of Gilead Sciences’s Truvada, which is already in use as an antiretroviral by HIV-positive patients, to preventive use in combination with safe sex. The drug’s trial found that Truvada reduced the risk of HIV infection by 75 percent compared to a placebo. An estimated 1,178,350 Americans were living with HIV at the end of 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more on the story at Healthwatch.

Tuesday’s agenda

Health Affairs will host an all-day briefing at the National Press Club about implementing the healthcare law.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will deliver remarks at the National Conference on Ending Homelessness.

State by state

Healthcare ruling, elections dominate governors’ meeting

Michigan healthcare expansion meets GOP resistance

Missouri Gov. takes no position on Medicaid expansion

Georgia tables Medicaid revamp

Ruling: Miss.’s only abortion clinic can remain open, for now

Idaho’s Otter names ‘ObamaCare’ working groups

Lobbying registrations