The GOP is refocusing its attention on the courts as it searches for any way to weaken President Obama’s signature healthcare law while he continues to wield a veto pen.
Twenty-five Republicans asked the Supreme Court to take on another lawsuit against ObamaCare on Thursday, this time against a controversial Medicare advisory board that the party has assailed as a “death panel.”
Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), who is leading the charge in Congress against the Independent Payment Advisory Board, said legal challenges against ObamaCare “make a lot more sense” than writing repeal bills that are guaranteed a veto.
Roe is among a growing number of Republicans who are acknowledging that the party cannot overcome the president’s veto even after its midterms sweep. Many are now arguing that a shift in strategy is needed to take down the law before 2016.
“We won’t have 67 votes in the Senate. We could conjure up a good number in the House, but you’ll never get a veto overridden in the Senate,” he told The Hill. “[Obama’s] going to veto it.”
The reach to the Supreme Court is part of a flurry of recent legal action that reflects a growing consensus within the GOP that the party must rely on courts instead of Congress to strike down ObamaCare, especially as more pieces of the law are put into place.
