President Barack Obama has declared the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act a "victory for all people," the reality is a lot more complicated.
The 5-4 ruling leaves behind a trail of winners and losers in politics, media, and even on the Supreme Court itself. Going forward, the survival of Obamacare will have wide-ranging consequences for business, politics, the multibillion-dollar healthcare industry, and for the millions of Americans who will be affected by the law.
WINNER: Barack Obama
President Obama was definitely the biggest winner of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, the signature legislative achievement of his first term. The President staked a lot of his political capital on healthcare reform, and would have suffered a huge political blow had the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional.
As Jon Stewart pointed out last night, the President and his campaign have made no effort to tone down their elation over the ruling. The campaign is now selling tee-shirts with the slogan: "Health Reform Still A BFD"
WINNER: U.S. Solicitor General Donal Verrilli
Verrilli, who took a lot of flak for his oral arguments defending the Affordable Care Act, was finally vindicated by the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the law.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, on the other hand, is eating crow for declaring Obamacare dead after Verrilli's arguments.
WINNER: Mitt Romney
While the ruling was a political disappointment for many Republicans, there was a silver lining for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who used the decision as a rallying cry for the GOP's conservative base,
“What the Court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected President of the United States," the presumptive GOP nominee said. "And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare."
The cattle call worked. By this morning, Romney had raise the Romney campaign had raised $4.5 million from more than 47,000 donors, according to a tweet from Romney's press secretary Andrea Saul.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider