Trump had his moment of triumph. He had been exonerated. Democrats were in chaos and despair. Some people were proclaiming them wounded beyond all recovery, stained with a witch hunt and false conspiracy theory, and that we might was well just skip the 2020 election, since the results had already been called.
But Trump apparently decided that wrapping up the election so early wouldn't be sporting, so he would give the Democrats a sporting chance. He turned his energies to his new priority -- stripping 20 million people of their health insurance.
A Texas judge has ruled that, since the individual mandate is essential to the functioning of Obamacare, the repeal of the individual mandate means that the whole act must be set aside. Conservative legal scholars, many of them bitter Obamacare opponents, dismissed the argument as worthless. Congressional Republicans and members of the Trump Cabinet recognize that stripping people of their healthcare is electoral poison. So naturally the Trump Administration is supporting this decision on appeal. I don't know how long the appeal will take. I don't know what Fifth Circuit will rule. But I am confident that this will never pass the Supreme Court. It will fail on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice Roberts breaking the tie. Roberts made clear in his last opinion that if Republicans want this law gone, they can repeal it, but stop asking the Supreme Court to do their dirty work for them.
It will, however, be a great weapon for Democrats to bash Republicans. Once again, they can scream that Republicans want to take your healthcare. It will energize party activists like nothing else. It will be a highly effective way of concentrating the mind on the importance of the Supreme Court -- if Trump gets to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 20 million people really could lose their health insurance.
Why Trump has chosen this moment for such a completely needless, self-inflicted wound is a mystery to me, and to most Americans of either party.
Oh, and did I mention that much of the Midwest is under water?
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