Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, threatens to subpoena the officials.

By Tony Mauro

…Defending the broader interpretation of the law, Arnold & Porter partner Robert Weiner said Congress could not have intended to write a “self-destructive” or “self-immolating” law that would not work. Weiner, who oversaw the legal defense of the health case law in his previous Justice Department job, asked, “Why would Congress plant a time bomb in the statute?”

Elizabeth Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center said that at the time of the passage of the law in 2010, “no one understood the law to preclude the tax credits” for those states using federal exchanges. Acts of Congress must be read in context to make them work, she said.

As an illustration, Wydra said it was probably possible to “pluck a phrase out of Moby Dick” that would make the book seem like it was about “a Sunday whale-watching cruise,” but that does not make it so.