Washington — President-elect Joe Biden said his transition team has all the resources they need to press forward with necessary preparations, as the Trump administration and the General Services Administration fails to recognize him as president-elect.
Technically, the GSA administrator must “ascertain” the winner of the election in order to release millions in funding for the transition, as well as office space and the authority to receive some classified briefings. Biden, speaking to reporters in Delaware about the Affordable Care Act, dismissed the notion that such resources are critical for a successful transition.
“Well first of all, we are already beginning the transition. We’re well under way,” Biden said. “And the ability for the administration in any way by failure to recognize our win does not change the dynamic at all and what we’re able to do. … We’re gonna’ be going, moving along, in a consistent manner, putting together our administration, White House, and reviewing who we’re going to pick for the Cabinet positions. And nothing’s going to stop that. So I’m confident that the fact that they’re not willing to acknowledge that we won at this point is not of much consequence in our planning and what we’re able to do between now and January 20th.”
Biden also said he doesn’t think it will be necessary to sue the Trump administration to make them hand over the resources that belong to his transition team.
“I don’t see a need for legal action, quite frankly,” he said.
On the health care front, Biden promised to fight to protect health care for every American, saying his transition team is getting “right to work” building on the Affordable Care Act.
Biden’s remarks come after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a key provision of the law. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, speaking before Biden, said every vote for Biden was a vote to protect and expand on the Affordable Care Act.
Biden said the outcome of the Supreme Court case is a matter of “life and death” for many Americans, in a literal sense. The president-elect promised to do everything he can to protect health care for all Americans.
“They need a lifeline and they need it now,” Biden said of families facing health crises.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments by telephone conference in the case brought by a group of 18 red states and backed by the Trump administration, which argue Obamacare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional because Congress eliminated the financial penalty for individuals who fail to obtain health insurance coverage. The Republican-led states and the Justice Department also claim that if the individual mandate is struck down by the Supreme Court, the rest of Obamacare should fall with it, as the provision is intertwined with the law.
The Urban Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, estimates that if the high court were to kill the health care law, an additional 21.1 million people would be uninsured in 2022.
Arguments in the case are set against the backdrop of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 238,000 in the United States. The number of confirmed infections surged past 10 million Monday.
The dispute over the law also comes to the court as the nation prepares for Biden to be sworn in on January 20. Biden has vowed to expand the 2010 health care law.
Republicans have tried twice before at the Supreme Court to dismantle Obamacare, most notably in 2012 when Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the court’s liberal wing to uphold its individual mandate. Since then, the makeup of the court has changed and its conservative majority expanded to 6-3 with the additions of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, all appointed by President Trump.
Barrett’s confirmation last month left Democrats assured the case will mean the end of Obamacare, as she replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginbsurg. Before Ginsburg’s death in September, the five justices who upheld the law in 2012 — she, Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — remained on the bench.
