how they rule. bill: hang on to those four points, but in some way the people have already spoken. brand new fox polling shows the following: more voters still oppose the health care law than oppose it. as of now 39% favor it. that s the exact number we saw just after the bill was passed and signed into law more than two years ago, and today just under half oppose it. a bit of a drop from 2010, but that number at 49%. voters also divide over whether congress or what congress should do if the justices only today out the mandate. if that happens, 43% say scrap the entire law. 42% want congress to keep what s left over, the are not sure at 16%. jamie: and we want to give you some background on the health care overhaul. president obama signed it into law on march 23, 2010. it runs more than 2,400 pages and to date 39 or, rather, 59 of 912 provisions of the 92
but it s also going to be major political implications as well not just for the president, but this morning the obama campaign is already putting out releases about how, you know, mitt romney years ago talked about the importance of an individual mandate. they re talking about what they would refer to as romneycare just as republicans refer to the president s plan as obamacare. so it s unclear yet how the politics of all this will play out. about the only thing we know for sure is as monumental as this decision will be this morning, it is not going to be the final word. you ve got republican speaker john boehner on the hill already saying that if all or part of this law is left in place by the supreme court, house republicans are going to move to try to replace it and knock it out anyway on capitol hill. you ve got mitt romney saying if he s elected, he s going to repeal and replace. and you ve had various lawmakers in both parties saying that once all of the fallout is measured in the
congressional intelligent, what did congress want. and it looks like congress didn t want the severability clause in. so i would expect if the mandate is stricken, you would expect the entire statute to go out the door. however, this is the supreme court, and they get to decide what they want. bill: indeed, they could. now two, weeks ago on a saturday night ruth bader ginsburg was quoted, apparently, she was at an event in washington, d.c., and she said if you cut off the head of the broccoli, what happens to the rest of the broccoli? if you toss out the mandate, does the law stand or not, and that appears to be a central issue. how did you interpret that report? you know, i m smart enough not to interpret what the justices say out of court or even in court. i ve been around the block enough, identify argued cases i ve argued cases myself. i walk out the door thinking, okay, i know how the justices or the judges what they re thinking, what they re going to decide and then six weeks
his vote first, and they go around the table in order of seniority. one wonder on that day at this moment if chief roberts changed this country being the first by saying i believe the law stantion on congress taxing power. bill: bret baier this is the headline for the moment. a major victory for the obama administration the u.s. supreme court on thursday ruled that barack obama s signature healthcare law is constitutional. in washington your reaction now? reporter: this is an amazing moment for the obama administration. and the fact that we as court watchers, and all the reporters, were focusing in on justice kennedy as the swing vote here when it was really the chief justice, john roberts who was the swing vote, and is the decider really on upholding obamacare, as its written as we ve been talking about. remember in the immigration vote people looked back and said is this an indication that roberts
i say could because they don t necessarily have to, but i want to let viewers see the possibilities right now. regarding the issues that are before the supremes. number one is this anti-injunction act which goes back to the 1870s. can a taxation provision prevent a court challenge until the law was fully in effect which means can you rule on a tax before the tax is applied if you define this penalty defined as a tax or not? that s number one. number two deals with the commerce clause, can congress enact the minimum coverage provision. that deals directly with the mandate. and then you go to number three, can the laws stand if you take the mandate out? that s the severability clause. and then number four, does the burden of increased medicaid funding violate the tenth amendment which relates directly to how washington interacts with the states and how the states and whether or not they re told to beef up the medicaid rules or not.