Biden: ‘Don’t believe’ high court will strike down healthcare law

Vice President Biden said Sunday the administration believes the Supreme Court will rule the individual mandate and the rest of President Obama’s healthcare reform law constitutional. 

The Republicans do not have an alternative to the healthcare law and will “continue no matter what the Supreme Court does to go after trying to eliminate … this law,” Biden said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

{mosads}When host Bob Schieffer pressed the vice president further on what the consequences of an invalidated healthcare law would be, Biden declined to imagine the possibilities. 

“Look, I’m not going to speculate about something I don’t believe will happen. I don’t believe it will happen,” Biden said.

“I just think we should focus on, what is the law doing for people now? And what would happen if in fact the Republicans were able to repeal it.”

The Supreme Court heard three days of arguments over the legality of the administration’s healthcare reform law, in particular the individual mandate, last week. 

Legal observers were critical of the performance of U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr., with Jeffrey Toobin calling the healthcare defense a “train wreck” and others claiming Verrilli failed to convince the court to uphold the individual mandate.

Biden, though, said that efforts at predicting the court’s decision would be futile.

“You and I have watched the Supreme Court for a lot of years,” Biden said. “No one has made any money betting an outcome of cases based on oral arguments and the questions asked.”