Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) previewed some of the messaging likely to come from Senate Democrats if the healthcare law is overturned by the Supreme Court, saying House Republicans would have to account for the loss of popular provisions of the bill.
"Does Speaker [John] Boehner [(R-Ohio)] want to tell senior citizens that we're not going to fill the doughnut hole and help pay of their prescriptions? Does Speaker Boehner want to tell kids just out of college they can no longer be part of their parents' plan? And does Speaker Boehner want to give insurance companies free reign to charge huge amounts for non-medical laws?" Schumer said to CNN Thursday morning, just an hour before the Supreme Court was set to hand down their opinion.
"Does he want to get rid of all those things?" he continued. "The American people don't."
The New York lawmaker said when the focus shifted away from healthcare reform as a total package and to individual provisions, Democrats were at a political advantage.
"If the House Republicans try to repeal those good parts I think we're going to be on very good ground. When you ask people about the overall bill they're worried about it, when you ask people about the individual parts, they love it," Schumer said.
Still, Schumer said he was hopeful the law would be allowed to remain in place, believing that over time, the package as a whole would become more popular.
"As the bill goes into effect, people will like it, because it's what they want," Schumer said. "As people learn of the good things happening, they want to keep it."
The senator added that he believed there was plenty of constitutional leeway to support the legislation's individual mandate, the controversial requirement at the heart of the legal challenge.
"If they're just judging the law strictly on the merits, this is clearly within the Commerce Clause. They say there can't be mandates? We mandate car insurance on everyone," Schumer said.
But Schumer said he couldn't predict how the court would rule, pointing to recent decisions on
Bush v. Gore and
Citizens United he believed were politically motivated. He also called out one Supreme Court justice for frequently opining on current events.
"I frankly am worried about Justice [Antonin] Scalia's ventures into politics way away from the law, but I'll have to wait and see the decision," Schumer said.
