Obamacare's reversal of the White House against cabinet objections

The Trump administration's startling initiative to invalidate Obamacare on Monday came despite the opposition of two key cabinet secretaries: Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General Bill Barr .

Administration chief Joe Grogan and acting director of the Budget and Budget Office Russ Vought were at the heart of this dramatic action, according to three sources with direct knowledge of decision. Both are close allies of Mick Mulvaney, Acting Chief of Staff of the White House, who helped organize the move.

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But the laconic letter of two sentences from the Justice Department sent Monday to a federal court of appeal, which had reversed the previous partial opposition of the administration to a lawsuit challenging the 2010 law on health care, had surprised many Republicans, in part because they saw there political risk for a party that failed to unite behind an alternative to Obamacare and who lost seats in the House at the mid-session in 2018, when Democrats focused their attacks on health care.

The new challenge for Obamacare comes after a heated debate in the internal administration that began late last year and continued until yesterday's announcement. Azar disputed the support of a lawsuit aimed at the complete repeal of the health care law at a meeting at the White House in late December, citing the lack of Republican alternative, according to two sources informed during internal discussions, while Mulvaney said that a bold attitude force Congress to repeal and replace the law.

In a statement, HHS insisted that there was no dispute between Azar and Mulvaney about the lawsuit.

"Secretary Azar fully supports the position of the administration's litigation in the ACA case, which bears his name," said HHS spokesman Caitlin Oakley in a statement. "Any insinuation that Secretary Azar has" twisted his head "to Mulvaney on this issue is false."

Barr also opposed the decision and is now in the uncomfortable position of leading the department responsible for the new charge against Obamacare. His opposition was partly based on Conservative lawyers' skepticism about the opportunity to overturn the law, known officially as the Affordable Care Act. In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare's individual warrant, which the current lawsuit challenges again. The Attorney General, who was confirmed just a month ago, was rejected by the White House.

The lawsuit in question seeks to invalidate the entire health care law. Previously, the Trump administration had only supported the challenges to parts of Obamacare without supporting its complete invalidation – a result that would plunge the US health system into chaos if another system was not put in place by Republicans who until now had not been able to agree. On a plan. The current challenge to the law was launched by a group of GOP Attorneys General.

In a letter sent Monday by the Department of Justice to the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court of the United States, federal lawyers would file a brief supporting the finding of a district court judge that the warrant Individual included in the Obama era law is now invalid as a tax because the GOP Congress finees it to zero dollar, and the government can not charge a zero dollar tax.

The decision to support this decision is in fact an endorsement of the abandonment of the law in its entirety – a break with the previous support of the administration for a partial repeal of the law that would have left many provisions, including the Medicaid extension.

"It's weird, it does not make much sense legally and how the Department of Justice normally approaches these issues." Normally, the Department of Justice is trying to ensure that litigation is disappearing and trying to defend federal laws, "said Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, who strongly opposed the Affordable Care Act. "The substantive arguments in favor of this position are not very strong and you can not find many people who think the arguments in favor of this position are strong."

A spokesperson for Barr did not respond to a request for comment. Neither the Department of Health and Social Services nor the White House responded immediately to a request for comment.

Although Mulvaney has been a quiet presence in Trump's frantic White House, the decision to take Obamacare as a direct target after the administration's failure to repeal the law in 2017 offers insight into how it exerts its influence. . Instead of focusing on limiting the access of other West Wing staff to the President – what his predecessor John Kelly tried and failed – he regularly built his own surgery inside the White House and gave his allies a direct line to Trump. They include Grogan, who took the reins of the Domestic Policy Council in late January.

This was evident Tuesday when Trump touted the new legal maneuver.

"The Republican party will soon be known as the health care party," Trump told reporters Tuesday during a visit during a Senate Republican visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. "You look." During lunch, the president asked the Republican lawmakers to develop a new health care plan.

As a member of the South Carolina Congress, Mulvaney was a founding member of the Tea Party caucus on Capitol Hill and one of the most outspoken opponents of the Affordable Care Act. He was one of about 20 right-wing legislators who supported the government's closure in 2013 with the goal of pushing the Obama administration to reduce the law. As Director of the Office of Management and Budget, he submitted budget proposals proposing the repeal of Obamacare – a renewed request in the White House proposal for 2020, written by Vought, former MP for Mulvaney.

The White House decision complicates the life of the Capitol Hill Republicans, who are mostly opposed to the movement, not least because nine years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, most do not support the abrogation of the law.

"I was extremely disappointed by the position taken by the Department of Justice," said Senator Susan Collins of Maine. "I thought it was bad enough when they did not want to defend parts of the law, parties protecting people with pre-existing conditions. It goes well beyond that and thinks it was a serious mistake. "

Other Republicans have focused their debates on congressional inaction.

"Congress must do its job and find a solution," said Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Who faces a tough re-election campaign. But Senate Republicans apparently have no plan to act if the law is rescinded.

Other Republicans eager to see their party tackle health care said Trump was cunningly urging them to act.

"We should not avoid that. And he will not let us go, "said Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.).

At the same time, Democrats said they were ready to take the political shift on health care before the 2020 elections. "They really come after your health care and we will talk about it from today. Until November of next year, "said Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). "There is no indication that we intended to carry out a campaign concerning the Mueller Inquiry. Frankly, we were looking for a way to put health care first. And they just did it for us.

"By the end of the day, they did not want to oppose a lawsuit against Obamacare," said Ramesh Ponnuru, editor-in-chief of National Review, who published an editorial against the lawsuit. "I'm not sure that makes sense, they could have said," We are against Obamacare, we are acting on nine different fronts, but we are not supporting this lawsuit. "

Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.