San Diego County’s congressional delegation reflected the partisan divide on the Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday that upheld a key element of the Affordable Care Act.

Rep. Darrell Issa at a House meeting. Photo courtesy Issa's office
Rep. Darrell Issa at a House meeting. Photo courtesy Issa’s office

Democrats Juan Vargas, Susan Davis and Scott Peters cheered the 6-3 ruling in King v Burwell. But Darrell Issa of the 49th District in North County was the lone House Republican to weigh in locally on Obamacare.

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter of the East County’s 52nd District posted no reaction on his website or Twitter feed.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a loss for the Constitution and amounts to an egregious expansion of executive power,” Issa said in a statement. “It flies in the face of one of the principles most fundamental to the American form of government: the separation of powers that gives Congress – not the executive branch, and certainly not agenda-driven agencies like the IRS – the sole ability to write laws.”

The Vista Republican said the Affordable Care Act’s wording “could not have been more clear or limiting in its scope, applying only to exchanges established by the states.”

Issa further said: “The Supreme Court has now taken the incredibly illogical leap of deciding that the words ‘exchanges established by the states’ should also mean ‘exchanges not established by the states.’”

The court’s decision thus weakens Congress’ ability to constrain the executive branch and “amounts to handing President Obama a $4 trillion check to spend as he sees fit, contrary to Congress’ and the states’ clearly expressed wishes,” he said.

On the side supporting the court majority, Rep. Scott Peters of the 52nd District said:

“Making health care more affordable and accessible for women and working families leads to a healthier nation, and allows more people to access preventative care which will lead to lower costs in the long-term. As we’ve seen with the medical device tax, there are still places to make adjustments, but today’s ruling will allow millions of men, women, seniors, and children to continue to receive quality health care.”

Reps. Davis and Vargas offered their cheers via Twitter.

In an editorial headlined “Obamacare upheld, again, but still needs fixing,” The San Diego Union-Tribune said: “It may now well be true, as Obama said Thursday, that the ACA ‘is here to stay.’ It is our hope that all sides can work in productive fashion to fix what still needs fixing, to make the biggest overhaul in health care delivery in decades better for patients, employers, insurers and taxpayers.”

On the liberal San Diego Free Press website, Doug Porter wrote: “This case was the right wing’s best shot and they failed.”

At this point, Porter said, “most observers agree Obamacare is here to stay for a while. The inability of the GOP to craft an alternative plan for insurance reform combined with the reality of a large constituency benefiting from ACA leaves no obvious path for repealing.”

East County Magazine editor Miriam Raftery noted a consequence of the ruling:

“Shares of publicly traded hospitals shot up after the decision, now that investors don’t have to worry that patients may drop coverage without subsidies, sending a wave of uninsured to hospital emergency rooms.”

San Diego County Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric had no comment on his Twitter feed, and the local GOP’s Facebook page was silent as well, but Krvaric’s Democratic counterpart checked in: