Lakhota
Diamond Member
'Mike Franc, Heritages Vice President of Government Studies, explained the details of reconciliations applicability thusly:
Now that the individual mandate has acquired the official constitutional status of a tax, there is no longer any doubt that the Congress, and more specifically the Senate, can repeal it pursuant to the simple majority vote threshold available under the Budget Acts reconciliation process. Some Senate insiders were concerned that the reconciliation process would leave too much of Obamacare intact, including the individual mandate. But todays decision, while alarming in so many other ways, dispels with that concern.
The mandate is now a revenue provision. Therefore, it is germane and not subject to a Senate parliamentary point of order to strike it from a repeal bill. The Senates filibuster process that would require a supermajority of 60 Senate votes to approve repeal is now irrelevant.'
Senate GOP Will Use Reconciliation to Repeal Obamacare
Justice Roberts is, indeed, a genius!
2) Congress cant repeal the full law through reconciliation. Without the necessary 60 votes in the Senate for full repeal, Republicans are pledging to use a budget reconciliation bill to undo the ACA. But this process would only apply to the budget-related elements of the law and would thus leave many portions including the mandate intact. As health care expert Robert Laszewski put it, Romney could end up creating a chaotic environment driven by enormous uncertainty over just which parts of the new health care law would be implementedfor consumers, health care providers, and insurers.
More: 4 Reasons Why Republicans Won't Be Able To Repeal Obamacare | ThinkProgress