Last night, Stephen Colbert looked at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel's reasoning behind striking down the subsidies for Obamacare in all those red states that have refused to set up their own health care exchange.
STUART VARNEY (7/22/2014): Big blow for Obamacare, and we're accurate in saying it. It is a huge blow for Obamacare.
That's how you know a news organization is trustworthy—they make the extra effort to point out when they're being accurate. (audience cheering and applause)
....
You see, in a 2-1 vote, the court this week ruled that residents of the 36 states that have not set up their own Obamacare insurance exchanges cannot get federal health care subsidies, because the exact words of the Affordable Care Act say that subsidies are available to people who are "enrolled in through an Exchange established by the State." And because it's written exactly that way, the court ruled that "subsidies are only available on state-based exchanges, not on the Healthcare.gov exchange".
And they based their ruling on the well-established precedent, "You forgot to say, 'Simon says!'" (audience laughter and applause)
Video and full transcript below the fold.
Next up, folks, gimme a second here, I wanna make sure I got my plastic tarp down. Because the next story makes me so happy, I might start leaking news juice. Jim?
ABBY HUNTSMAN (7/22/2014): Obamacare suffers perhaps its biggest setback yet.
SANDRA SMITH (7/22/2014): A federal appeals court ruling the Affordable Care Act, as written, only allows insurance subsidies in states that set up their own exchanges.
CHARLIE ROSE (7/23/2014): Coverage for millions of Americans enrolled under President Obama's health care law may be in jeopardy.
STUART VARNEY (7/22/2014): Big blow for Obamacare, and we're accurate in saying it. It is a huge blow for Obamacare.
That's how you know a news organization is trustworthy — they make the extra effort to point out when they're being accurate. (audience cheering and applause)
And folks, they are this time. Make no mistake, they are accurate in saying that Obamacare is dead. Now the last time I declared Obamacare dead, I dropped balloons and then twerked with the Grim Reaper.
So folks, that's all been done. But like voting to repeal Obamacare, we are going to do it again, come on!!
(audience cheering and applause)
He's a good guy. Death is a good guy and a hell of a good dancer.
And this happy news brings me to the Tip of the Hat to the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals. You see, in a 2-1 vote, the court this week ruled that residents of the 36 states that have not set up their own Obamacare insurance exchanges cannot get federal health care subsidies, because the exact words of the Affordable Care Act say that subsidies are available to people who are "enrolled in through an Exchange established by the State". And because it's written exactly that way, the court ruled that "subsidies are only available on state-based exchanges, not on the Healthcare.gov exchange".
And they based their ruling on the well-established precedent, "You forgot to say, 'Simon says!'" (audience laughter and applause)
Nation, 5.6 million people could now lose their insurance because of this phraseology. And I believe this is a triumph of typo over intent. The Democrats who wrote this law should have proofread it, or at least not have sent it from their iPhone.
(audience laughter)
This ruling is just the latest in our nation's long history of legally binding typos. Who could forget the brief dangerous period when Americans only had the right to keep and bare rams?
(audience laughter and applause)
But folks, as Constitutional originalists, all conservatives believe that when you make a typo, you have to stick with it. I mean, why else would anyone name their child Reince Priebus? (audience laughter) We'll be right back.
Stephen started off the show looking at
Nate Silver's comparison of the popularity between
Star Wars characters and 2016 presidential contenders.
Meanwhile, Jon discussed New York politicians from NYC mayor Bill de Blasio (D) caught eating pizza with a fork again, to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) shutting down his commission investigating corruption.
Jon then covered some... interesting... news from Japan.
Stephen talked with Elon Musk, who got two segments, and Jon talked with Fareed Zakaria, which had an extended segment as well.