Supreme Court Health Care Ruling Inspires Creative Vitriol
Friends and foes mince few words after court upholds Obama health law.
June 29, 2012 -- Responses to the Supreme Court's upholding the Affordable Care Act ranged across the board, but some of them stuck out, whether they came from conservatives or liberals. From unbridled excitement to full-on condemnation, here are some of the most pointed, gut-reaction comments on the decision:
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli blamed the Supreme Court for essentially taking the country back to British rule in his response: "This unprecedented decision says that Congress has the authority to force citizens to buy private goods or face fines, a power it has never had in American history, and a power King George III and Parliament didn't have over us when we were mere subjects of Great Britain. Since the federal government itself could never articulate to the court a constitutional limit to this power, Congress has gained an unlimited power to force citizens to buy anything."
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., compared the ruling on the Affordable Care Act to 9/11 in a closed-door meeting. As soon as word leaked, Pence issued an apology, but the Indiana Democrats immediately blasted him on the comments in an email, using it as fodder for campaign fundraising.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin proved her rhyming skills with her Twitter response: "Obama lied to the American people. Again. He said it wasn't a tax. Obama lies; freedom dies."
Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves immediately after the decision to condemn the Supreme Court for allowing the Obama administration to deceive America in passing "the biggest tax increase in the history of the world."
"So Obamacare is nothing more than the largest tax increase in the history of the world," he said. "And the people who were characterizing it as such were right and were telling the truth. We have the biggest tax increase in the history of the world right in the middle of one of this country's worst recessions."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry referred to the Supreme Court ruling as "a stomach punch" and the law as a "monstrosity" in a paper statement:
"This ruling will be a stomach punch to the American economy. It is a shocking disappointment to freedom-loving Americans desperate to get our country back on track. Obamacare is bad for the economy, bad for health care, bad for freedom. Americans have made clear their overwhelming opposition to its convoluted, burdensome and overreaching mandates.
"Freedom was frontally attacked by passage of this monstrosity – and the Court utterly failed in its duty to uphold the Constitutional limits placed on Washington. Now that the Supreme Court has abandoned us, we citizens must take action at every level of government and demand real reform, done with respect for our Constitution and our liberty."
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., asserted that the ruling "undermined the credibility of the Supreme Court first by the court having a schizophrenic view of whether Obamacare is a tax." She claimed that Democrats played bait-and-switch with the legislation, and that "they said it is not a tax for purpose of jurisdiction for hearing the case. Then they said it was a tax for upholding the constitutionality."
Patrick Gaspard, executive director of the DNC, kept it short and sweet: He simply tweeted "it's constitutional. B-----s."
Former Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, couldn't contain her emotion when she heard about the decision, only, it was the wrong decision. Schmidt is seen reacting to the false reports that the individual mandate had been overturned in one of the most embarrassing videos to have hit the Internet amid Thursday's news.
Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., compared Obamacare to a cancer in statements made outside of the Supreme Court after the ruling: "Today America is threatened with a stage-three cancer of socialism, and Obamacare is the first symptom."
And perhaps whatever personal relationship existed between Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., and Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a blow. "I don't want to drink a beer with him today," Gingrey said of Roberts. "I'm not calling for his impeachment, I'm just very, very disappointed."
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