Pelosi: ObamaCare will prevail in court

President Obama’s healthcare reform law is under no threat by the courts, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) asserted Thursday.

Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, said this week’s ruling by a federal judge allowing House Republicans to sue the administration over money being spent under the law is an “astounding” decision that won’t hold up under appeal.

“It will be overturned,” Pelosi said during a press conference in the Capitol. “But it was an interesting decision because it was unprecedented in our entire history.”

Behind Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the Republicans are challenging the administration’s move to subsidize patient coverage under the law with billions of dollars in payments to insurance companies that Republicans contend Congress didn’t authorize.

In a 43-page ruling released Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer found that the Republicans have standing to pursue their challenge. Collyer did not rule on the merits of the case.

Boehner hailed the decision, saying it “sends a strong message that no one, especially no president, is above being held accountable to the Constitution.”

“I cannot overstate how big a victory this is for limited government and our first principles,” Boehner told reporters Thursday in the Capitol.

“Time and again the president has chosen to ignore the will of the American people and to rewrite laws on his own without a vote of the Congress,” he added. [That’s] not the way our system of government was designed to work. If this president can get away with making his own laws, future presidents will have the ability to do so as well.”

Democrats have a decidedly different take, arguing that the administration has the authority to make the payments by way of a separate pool — designated a “cost-sharing” program — set aside to subsidize new insurance coverage for qualified patients under the law.

The Justice Department has vowed to appeal Collyer’s decision immediately. And Pelosi said she’s certain the administration will prevail.

“I’m confident the court would not want to become an arbiter between arguments between the executive and legislative branches of government,” she said. “We’ve been down that path. The Constitution does not contemplate that rule, for the Supreme Court, and Republicans have tried 60 ways to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I believe that this will be overturned.”