Romney reacts to Supreme Court ruling: I’ll “act to repeal Obamacare”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that he would act to repeal President Obama’s healthcare law on his first day in office in his first comments since the Supreme Court allowed the law to stand.
“I disagree with the Supreme Court decision and I agree with the dissent,” Romney told reporters at an appearance in Washington, D.C. “What the Supreme Court did not do on its last day in session, I will do in my first day in office. I will act to repeal Obamacare.”
Romney criticized the healthcare law as a poor policy, claiming it would raise healthcare prices, add billions to the federal budget deficit, and cause up to 20 million to lose their health insurance.
The presumptive GOP nominee added that he would implement his own health insurance reform that would ensure that people could keep their private insurance and would ensure people with pre-existing condition receive insurance, a provision in Obama’s law. But he declined to specify how he would accomplish his twin goals of repealing Obama’s law and replacing it.
As governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he signed a state law that mandated that almost all residents purchase health insurance, similar to the mandate included in President Obama’s law. Liberal critics have sought to use that as an example that Romney’s pledge to repeal the healthcare law is hypocritical, but his defenders say that the state-level mandate is much different than a national one.
Though the law remains unpopular among the general public, according to recent polls, a majority of Latinos support it and they rank healthcare as a top voting concern. Obama’s campaign has sought to boost its support among Latino voters by trumpeting the healthcare law in Spanish-language advertisements.
But Romney has insisted he will repeal the law in an effort to galvanize conservative support for his campaign and appeal to independents who are turned off by the law.
“This is now a time for the American people to make a choice,” Romney said. “Our mission is clear, if we want to get rid of Obamacare, we’re going to have to replace President Obama. My mission is to do exactly that.”
(Photo: Jordan Fabian)
