WASHINGTON — Cracking the often-lamented partisanship of Washington, a Republican-led Congress and a conservative Supreme Court chief justice delivered back-to-back victories for President Barack Obama’s ambitious trade and health care initiatives.
The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld a key provision of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, thus salvaging Obama’s top domestic policy achievement. A day earlier, Republican leaders helped maneuver legislation that gives Obama greater power to negotiate international trade deals, and rescued a key item of his second-term agenda.
Obama’s successes were in no small measure the work of a Republican leadership he has often decried as obstructionist and from a chief justice whose nomination Obama once opposed.
“This was a good day for America,” Obama declared in heralding the high court’s decision.
It was an opinion many Republicans quickly countered with continued vows to repeal and replace the law.
