Statement by Senator Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court's Decision in King v. Burwell

HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court's decision on King v. Burwell:

"Today's decision in King v. Burwell is judicial activism, plain and simple. For the second time in just a few years, a handful of unelected judges has rewritten the text of Obamacare in order to impose this failed law on millions of Americans. The first time, the Court ignored federal law and magically transformed a statutory 'penalty' into a 'tax.' Today, these robed Houdinis transmogrified a 'federal exchange' into an exchange 'established by the State.'

"As Justice Scalia rightfully put it, 'Words no longer have meaning if an Exchange that is not established by a State is 'established by the State." He also said, 'We should start calling this law SCOTUSCare' – I agree.

"If this were a bankruptcy case, or any other case of ordinary statutory interpretation, the result would have been 9-0, with the Court unanimously reversing the Obama administration's illegal actions. But instead, politics intervened.

"For nakedly political reasons, the Supreme Court willfully ignored the words that Congress wrote, and instead read into the law their preferred policy outcome. These judges have joined with President Obama in harming millions of Americans. Unelected judges have once again become legislators, and bad ones at that. They are lawless, and they hide their prevarication in legalese. Our government was designed to be one of laws, not of men, and this transparent distortion is disgraceful.

"At the same time, crocodile tears are flooding our nation's capital today over the Supreme Court's decision to illegally rewrite Obamacare, which has been a disaster since its inception. But one day of faux outrage from the Washington Cartel won't fool the millions of courageous conservatives across our country. They know the Republican leadership in Washington is quietly celebrating the Court's decision. If they believe this issue is now settled so they don't have to address it, they are sorely mistaken.

"Every GOP candidate for the Republican nomination should know that this decision makes the 2016 election a referendum on the full repeal of Obamacare.

"I have made repeal of this disastrous law a top priority since the first day I arrived in the Senate and have made its repeal central to my campaign. Any candidate not willing to do the same—and campaign on it every day—should step aside.

"The Court adopted the IRS's blatantly unlawful reading of the statute to make subsidies available to individuals on federal exchanges, when Congress expressly provided the opposite.

"After today's ruling, Obamacare will now be responsible for imposing illegal taxes on more than 11 million individuals and for burdening hundreds of thousands of businesses with illegal penalties on their workers, killing jobs, and further slowing economic growth. President Obama's health care law remains deeply unpopular and is harming countless Americans by increasing costs and worsening the quality of care.

"I remain fully committed to the repeal of Obamacare—every single word of it. And, in 2017, we will do exactly that."