White House: No contingency plans for health care law

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The Supreme Court this summer could strike down all or parts of President Obama's signature piece of legislation, the 2010 health care overhaul, but the White House emphatically maintained Wednesday that it's not preparing any contingency plans for that scenario.

"We believe the law is constitutional, and we are focused on implementing all of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act," Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Wednesday.

As to whether the White House was creating contingency plans for the law given the tough nature of the questions posed by the Supreme Court justices this week, Earnest said that is "not something we're spending a second doing."

"Anybody who believes you can try to predict the outcome of a Supreme Court case based solely on the questions of the justices is not a very good student of the court," he said.

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The court on Wednesday wrapped up three days of hearings on the constitutionality of the health reforms. It's expected to hand down a ruling sometime in late June -- right in the middle of the 2012 election season.

Earnest said the White House is confident the law is constitutional in part because of its bipartisan support over the years. "This is a novel policy solution that was conceived of by [the conservative think tank] the Heritage Foundation [and] promoted by Republicans," he said.

He pointed out that millions of people are already benefitting from some of the law's provisions, such as the rule requiring free preventive care and the rule allowing children under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' insurance plans.

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Several pundits have charged that Solicitor General Donald Verrilli may have hurt the law's chances of survival after giving what they called a poor defense of the individual mandate in Tuesday's court hearing. CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin called Verilli's performance "a train wreck."

White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler released a statement to the media Wednesday calling Verilli "an extraordinarily talented advocate who possesses a sharp mind, keen judgment and unquestionable integrity," adding that he "ably and skillfully represented the United States before the Supreme Court."

Earnest later today said the White House "wholeheartedly" agrees with that assessment, calling Verilli "one of the brightest legal minds in Washington, D.C."

35 Photos

Scenes from the Supreme Court health care hearings

[sandy 1027]

The bill has been upheld in appellate courts, by conservative, Republican judges.Regardless of the outcome, I commend the president for caring; and trying to develop a plan that makes sure that all Americans are covered.He took a middle-of -the- road approach with the individual mandate, a GOP idea.I'm sure, that health care will happen in this country, in some form.It's overdue.We are behind every industrialized nation of the world,in not having had a health plan for all citizens; and this issue will not go away.We will have coverage for all citizens.

[Hogking]

The issue is going away, the occupiers are going away, soon this commie pinko dictator is going away, all gone, bye bye, sandy all pouty mad face and hormone raging lunatioc mean nothing again.

[Martha12345]

No surprises. It's time to start playing golf.

[dkn1234]

Whats new? This administration doesn't have a plan for anything!

[bobc1493]

I suppose you think "Bush" had a good plan during his 8 years in office. Two wars and a world wide economic collapse

[royalstar05]

If the S.C. knew all along that the law would be struck down, why werent they voting on this a year and a half ago? Its going to cost more to take out the things that have already been implemented than it was to start them out in the first place. This country is run a$$ backwards.

[royalstar05]

Some states were sueing a month after it got ok'd. The S.C. has had PLENTY of time.

[2happy2ride]

He only has one plan; "We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy."
Osama Bin Laden - November 2004

Sadly, the uninformed left continues to support a man with an apparent detrimental mission.

[nearl451]

Of course there's a contignency. Spin the outcome and run on it!

[blakemcdaniel]

It will fare much better with the Obama White House if this is another in an almost daily string of Obama/Holder lies. Obamacare is going down (in part or in whole). If they don't have a plan B, they've got nothing.

Thank you that there are still a very slight majority of non-activist justices on the Supreme Court that are committed to upholding the constitution.

Sadly Obama, Holder, and the 4 liberal justices on the Supreme Court also swore an oath to uphold the constitution. An oath that was completely meaningless to them and should be grounds for each of their impeachment and removal from office.

[dkn1234]

One American.....what do you base that on? who are you to say they don't follow the Constitution? Come on, admit it! You are just being a cry-baby because they didn't side with you.....

[geezerdude]

If you can't afford Health insurance now, how will you be able to pay the mandated amount? The answer is that Obama will have the government (us taxpayers) foot that bill also. So at the end of the day, 30 million people are going to get free insurance while I pay for mine and theirs. I am broke.

[Filmguy870]

It will be a sad day if the SCOTUS declares it unconstitutional. But, none of us is as dumb as all of us!

[geezerdude]

Go get a job with a company that offers Health Insurance just like the other 300 million of us have to do. We don't owe you jack because you made some bad decisions in your life.

[1notrub11]

"He pointed out that millions of people are already benefitting from some of the law's provisions, such as the rule requiring free preventive care and the rule allowing children under the age of 26 to stay on their parents' insurance plans."

Of course people are benefiting. Whenever something is free to YOU, it could be considered a benefit. Unless of course it happens to be that you have been handed an anchor while in the water in the middle of an ocean.