Most conservatives thought they had the Burwell case. They’d all concluded that they were going to lose on gay marriage, which they will, but that Burwell they had. And it was a big loss.

But we should also be honest. The United States Supreme Court saved the Republican Party from itself.

In closed doors on Capitol Hill, Republican leaders had every intention of rushing through legislation to preserve the subsidies in federal exchanges. They had brought in pollsters to tell the members of congress that they’d get blamed otherwise.

Competing polls were presented to show the GOP that Obama would get blamed, but the leadership pollsters were already stacking the deck against common sense and not only dismissed the other polls, but leadership also denied the other pollsters competing time to make their case. Leadership had a plan ready to go quickly to extend the subsidies with a promise that they’d fight Barack Obama later.

Later would be after 2017 when Obama was gone.

House and Senate Republicans had no intention under the sun of repealing Obamacare or letting it collapse under its own weight with the loss of subsides.

The Supreme Court’s decision spared the GOP from having to prop up and save Obamacare. Now they can continue to claim they want to repeal it and, frankly, they do not have much of a choice on the matter now.

It’s no consolation that John Roberts essentially decided words no longer mean things. But it did stop Republican efforts to fix what the Democrats messed up and demands they continue the campaign against Obamacare.