of confirmation hearings for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch continues. gorsuch has faced tough questions from democrats on the judiciary committee. right now, democratic senator chris coons is grilling judge gorsuch about his hobby lobby ruling. later this hour, tom tillis about the hearing and whether his party is ready for a filibuster from the democrats. we ll be right back with more mtp daily in just a minute. (vo) this is not a video game. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body s own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn t exist until now. and today can save your life.
hard over the coming days and week, zach. but i m struck by the fact over the last 12 days people have lot sight how unifying this will be for republicans. the president has ruffled feathers but they will all be with him on this. they will. and donald trump needed that. he needed a way to unify the party. he s doing things to frustrate people on capitol hill. how is he going to pay for the wall? having the wall itself. these are things that are going to divide the party. neil gorsuch is going to unify it because of, we presume, his stance on life issues, et cetera. it s something that ke rally around. and with the hobby lobby ruling, that s a touchstone for conservatives, quite frankly, legal conservatives, yeah? yeah, not only does it have to do with the issue of life but obamacare which unifies republicans for the most part very easily. zach wolf for us in
could it have massive policy implications if what the d.c. court found is true? of course. you can t subsidize the people on the federal exchanges and therefore the law could collapse under its own weight. we re a long way from there. in the near to medium term, the politics of obamacare, you thought we were beyond it, it s because nothing changes. not the supreme court ruling ruling it constitutional. not the hobby lobby ruling. nothing politically speaking changes people s minds about this law. you have about 45% of people to 48% of people who disapprove. low 40s who approve of the law. it s not moved in significant numbers in 18 months or a couple of years so my guess is, yes, if this happened it would be a big deal. politically republicans don t like the law. democrats kind of i should say republicans hate the law. democrats like the law.
d.c. circuit court of appeals just ruled in a case that could be far more devast e devastating to obamacare than the hobby lobby ruling. it s a case that has the issue whether the federal obamacare exchange, not just state-run ones, offer tax credits to low income americans who sign up and since so many states opted to use that federal system, this could make obamacare unaffordable for a huge swath of america. that could be a setback but another court just upheld those same federal subsidies so when s next for this? we re joined by pete williams and abby gluck. pete? it s fortunate note that there have been two rulings today that go in completely opposite directions and reached opposite conclusions on this issue. here s the issue. as you say, the states can offer these exchanges and in the state
perhaps hillary clinton. i know, shocking. i think it s a smart tactic from christie because there is this sense among the public that they are a little wary of people who appear overly ambitious, appear to be seeking power and maybe not seeking the presidency for the right reasons. obviously though he is going to iowa. he is doing a lot of things this year that certainly make it look like he s thinking about the presidency. are those just words there or part of how he really feels? part of his public personas, i call them as i see them, won t be rushed into anything. going to iowa, a place where christian conservatives are prominent in the primaries and one of the key suspicions, where is he on gay marriage and what would he do with the hobby lobby ruling? will we get a flavor of that? there s a poll out today that shows his unfavorability ratings in iowa are among the highest in the republican field.