James Carville: Overturning Obamacare Would Help Democrats

With all the talk about the Supreme Court case challenging President Barack Obama's health care legislation and the tough beating it took over the past few days, it's hard to sort through the policy and the politics.

Democratic strategist James Carville has an interesting take on the political side of things.

The pundit and Clinton administration alum told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that overturning the mandate in the Affordable Health Care act would be good news for Democrats in the long run.

I think that [an overturn] will be the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic party because health care costs are gonna escalate unbelievably, Carville told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in his characteristic southern drawl, adding I really believe that, this is not spin.

Carville said that if the health care overhaul bill gets thrown out the window because of an individual mandate that requires all Americans to have health insurance, the public relations aftermath will work in Obama's favor in time for the election.

You know what the Democrats are going to say -- and it is completely justified: 'We tried, we did something, go see a 5-4 Supreme Court majority. The public has these guys figured out. Our polls show that half think this whole thing is political.

Carville: Nothing Better For Democrats Than A 5-4 Defeat

Just as a professional Democrat, there's nothing better to me than overturning this thing 5-4 and then the Republican Party will own the health care system for the foreseeable future ... Thank Scalia if you want health care, Carville continued, referring to the Supreme Court Justice who is in favor of throwing out the mandate and the law.

Carville is in a lonely boat as far as his logic goes.

Politico's Glenn Thrush wrote spinning a loss as a win, in the large sense, is a little like praising the tsunami because you had forgotten to water your houseplants.

And in a New York Times editorial, Andrew Rosenthal said the New Orleans native's way of looking at the situation was unfairly pessimistic.

That's spin - even though Mr. Carville said twice that it wasn't, Rosenthal wrote. It's purely political and cynical way of understanding policy; if health care costs 'escalate unbelievably' that's not good for anyone. (It's comparable to Republicans thinking they should stall the economic recovery so as to hurt the president's chances at re-elections).

The opinion probably most representative of the Democratic establishment came from party chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz, D-Fla. She didn't really agree with liberal pundit's way of thinking, either. What would be great for Americans is if the justices uphold the Affordable Care Act so that we can make sure that the Republicans aren't allowed to drag us backward to the days where insurance companies are making the decisions for what's best in terms of your healthcare, she said, according to Politico.

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