Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky claims congressional lawmakers intend to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, repeatedly if necessary. After Tuesday’s elections, McConnell is now the leader of a significantly strengthened Senate minority, placing Republicans in a stronger position to take action.
According to Fox News, “If Obama should veto laws repealing the healthcare overhaul, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says, the House should cancel funding for its programs. As for the Senate, he says that senators should vote against what he calls the law’s ‘most egregious provisions.’”
Not shy about his intentions, McConnell told the conservative Heritage Foundation that it’s all part of an effort to deny Obama a second term in the White House in 2012.
At his press conference Wednesday, Obama sidestepped any questions regarding a possible repeal of his signature healthcare law:
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I think we’d be misreading the election if we thought that the American people want to see us for the next two years re-litigate arguments that we had over the last two years…. But I don’t think that if you ask the American people, should we stop trying to close the doughnut hole that will help senior citizens get prescription drugs, should we go back to a situation where people with pre-existing conditions can’t get health insurance, should we allow insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick, even though you had been paying premiums.
The President’s statements followed remarks by House Speaker-in-waiting Rep. John Boehner that the Republicans would do everything they could to undo the legislation:
I believe that the healthcare bill that was enacted by the current Congress will kill jobs in America, ruin the best healthcare system in the world and bankrupt our country. That means that we have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill, and replace it with commonsense reforms that will bring down the cost of health insurance.
Of course, some ranking Republicans have been inconsistent in their intentions for the future of ObamaCare. The New American‘s Joe Wolverton, II addressed some of these inconsistencies in "Republican Balks at Complete Repeal of ObamaCare." One such flip-flopper has been Congressman Joe L. Barton, a Republican who provided an unreliable stance on the future of ObamaCare.
Congressional Quarterly reported:
First, Barton would hold hearings and move a complete repeal "of everything after the enacting close" through his committee, ideally within the first 60 days. Then, he would push for replacement legislation that would retain some of the law.
In other words, Barton does not necessarily wish to repeal ObamaCare as a whole, but rather to “retain some of its more popular provisions.”
In order to decide which provisions should be preserved, Barton recommends the formation of a task force.
Wolverton notes:
This posture is typical of the measured and mediocre attack on socialism that is nothing more than the shadow boxing of the loyal opposition that is tolerated (even encouraged) by the ruling party. In this case, the ruling party is not designated by an R or a D, rather than by its devotion to the principle of eradication of Constitutional restraints.
For months scores of Republican lawmakers (and those trying to become such) have promised that before the sun set on their first day in power the long, national nightmare of ObamaCare would be over. In keeping with the custom of the times, however, to a man these reformers are purposely vague as the specific road to repeal they would follow.
According to Fox News editorialist Chris Stirewalt, repealing ObamaCare should continue to be a focal point for the Republicans. Stirewalt, in fact, attributes the Democratic losses to ObamaCare. “Passing an unpopular plan at a moment when the electorate is screaming for action on the economy was a political kamikaze mission.”
During Wednesday’s press conference, Fox News’ Mike Emanuel pointed out that very fact to the President based on information provided during exit polls.
Likewise, the only three Democrats who touted their support for ObamaCare — Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Representatives Tom Perriello of Virginia and North Dakota’s Earl Pomeroy — were voted out of office.
Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia was struggling in the polls until he said that ObamaCare “needs to have a lot of it repealed. If you can’t fix that, repeal the whole thing” in mid-October.
Fox News writes, “Republicans are itching to tackle the president’s national healthcare law, but some in the party are worried that the effort to repeal Obamacare could be a powerful distraction for the sake of what would be, at best, a symbolic victory.”
However, as so many Republicans campaigned on the promise of repealing ObamaCare, it will be nearly impossible to resist calls for progress.
One Republican leadership aide comments, “Nobody is saying that we shouldn’t try to repeal it or that the House won’t pass a bill for repeal. We’re just saying that we should be talking more about jobs right now.”
Stirewalt warns, however, “Since no major bill will advance beyond the Senate or the president’s veto and crabby voters are watching closely, Republicans have to be careful to avoid using their moment of political reintroduction to push a boulder up Mt. Obamacare all year.”
Scripps News states, however, “GOP control of the most state-legislative seats since 1928 could spawn fresh anti-Obamacare lawsuits beyond the 21 that states have filed.”
