The flag-draped casket of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still lying in state at the U.S. Capitol on Friday, while Donald Trump was publicly promising he would announce his pick for her replacement on the court the following day. At the same time, Mitch McConnell was promising that he had the votes to ram this nomination through the Senate in record time.
Only four years ago, these very Republican leaders insisted that President Obama had no right to appoint a nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy nine months before a presidential election. Could President Trump and the Republican Party be any more hypocritical?
The answer to this question is YES! For, in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed 204,000 Americans and nearly 1 million persons worldwide, President Trump and his Justice Department have asked the Supreme Court to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act. Republicans have tried to dismantle this landmark legislation since it was enacted in 2010, but have never had a viable replacement on the table. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the suit to repeal the ACA on Nov. 10.
The ACA has enabled over 500,000 Granite Staters with pre-existing health conditions to afford to maintain their private health insurance. In addition, more than 100,000 New Hampshire citizens currently have their actual health insurance coverage through the ACA, either through an exchange plan or through Medicaid expansion. The expansion of Medicaid in New Hampshire has brought hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds into our state to cover the health care of persons of moderate means previously uninsured. Thanks to this program, those caught in the trap of opioid addiction have been able to seek help, and thousands in our state who have lost their jobs and their employer-based health insurance have obtained emergency coverage. Thanks to the ACA, seniors have had access to more affordable prescription drugs and health maintenance doctor visits and have been spared what can only be termed an “age tax,” which would return if the ACA were to be repealed.
The effort by Republicans to steamroll over all opposition and appoint a replacement Supreme Court justice within weeks of the presidential election can only be described as Ruthless (pun intended)! With a clear conservative majority on the nine-member Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act would be in grave danger even if Trump loses the election. And such a conservative majority threatens to invalidate a fair election if Trump loses but the results are challenged at the individual state level and the controversy is brought before the Supreme Court.
We individual citizens may not be able to dissuade the president and the Senate majority leader from plowing ahead to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We can and must, however, send an unequivocal message to those in power that the good of “we the people” is what is at stake. “We the people” are safer, healthier, and more secure with the Affordable Care Act preserved, improved, and expanded toward the goal of affordable, accessible and excellent health care for every American.
Achieving conservative legal and social policies is not a moral or patriotic endeavor if it comes at the price of loss of faith in our fundamental American values. Such unprincipled efforts are the height of hypocrisy. We are reminded of a principled Republican, Abraham Lincoln, and his famous Gettysburg Address. Let us listen to him and apply his words to today’s America. Government of the people, including free and fair elections. Government by the people, including congressional fairness and bipartisanship, and a free, honest, and fair press. Government for the people, including the right of every citizen to achieve our full potential with basic health care for all, equal treatment under the law, and fair and compassionate tax and immigration policies. Can we not commit to these American values together?
(Dr. Millie LaFontaine of Concord is a retired neurologist. Dr. Randy Hayes of Canterbury is a retired family doctor.)