Posted on 07/01/2012 3:35:32 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew touted the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the president’s healthcare reform bill Sunday and warned Republicans to “move on” and drop efforts to undo the legislation.
“I don’t think the American people want to have this debate again,” said Lew about GOP efforts to repeal the health bill on “Fox News Sunday.” “I don’t think they want to be pulled back into decades of debate to get to where we are. We now have a law, the law is constitutional, we should implement it.”
The high court on Thursday dealt a blow to Republicans by upholding the much of the Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 ruling. Congressional Republicans and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney have vowed though to continue efforts to undo the law.
The House is expected to vote on July 11 after returning from recess on repealing the law. Past repeal votes though have failed to garner support in the Democratic-led Senate.
Lew on Sunday said the administration was open to improving the healthcare law, but that efforts at full repeal were a waste of time.
“The president has said on many occasions that he wants to work across party lines and there are things that can be done to improve the law,” he said. “Those are the conversations we should be having and we need to move on and deal with the economy and jobs. We need to put our efforts on creating opportunities for Americans to be employed.”
Both sides are hopeful the court decision will help rally their supporters ahead of a tough November general election. Obama campaign officials are pushing Democrats to tout the healthcare bill as an example of the administration’s efforts to aid middle and working class families. Republicans, however, are seeking to use the court’s decision upholding the individual mandate under Congress’s taxing powers to paint the provision as a tax hike on families.
Lew on Sunday pushed back on GOP claims that the health bill’s individual mandate is a tax and said the overwhelming majority of Americans would be able to easily comply with the provision.
“The only thing in this bill that puts a burden on individuals to pay more is a penalty for those who can afford insurance and chose not to buy it. And to be clear that’s one percent of the population. In Massachusetts where this was tested in the plan that Gov. Romney put into place, one percent of the population ended up paying the penalty,” Lew said.
“For the other 99 percent what it means is security. They and their family get coverage, it means benefits that they get will offer better coverage and it means they don’t have to worry that if somebody gets sick they’re going to lose their health insurance,” he added.
Lew said that the court’s decision did not characterize the mandate as a tax. “What the Supreme Court said was this was constitutional. It didn’t matter what Congress called it.”
“Technically, what they said was the Congress has many powers, there’s a Commerce Clause, there’s taxing powers and it was constitutional,” he added.
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” as on the other Sunday shows, Lew continued to insist that the law was not a tax.
"What is in the law is a penalty," Lew said. "For Americans who buy health insurance, who can't afford it and get it through a government program, there is no penalty. That covers 99 percent of the American people.”
When Lew was pushed to define the law as a tax, he replied, "The court found it constitutional... Frankly, what you call it is not the issue."
"We call it fair," Lew said after host George Stephanopoulos tried to get him to acknowledge that the court defined it as a tax.
On ABC, Lew also hammered home his point that the mandate's penalties would affect very few, only one percent he said.
"Let's be clear about who that one percent is, those are people who can afford health insurance, choose not to buy it and then when they get sick, they go to the hospital and the cost gets spread amongst all the people who are paying for insurance," said Lew.
We’re truly only fighting a rear-guard action.
Screw yew, Lew.
bah. let them double down on stupid...gona eat popcorn and watch when all these parasites get “their” healthcare and it officially bankrupts the country..well its bankrupt already. i am just in awe that some of you still think the repugnicans are going to turn it around , it wont happen, period, end of story. I hate to see it but we got to starve the beast let it collapse under its own weight.
All that means nada unless we take the Senate and White House. Until we take the Senate, the repeal bill will never see the light of day there. Until we take the White House, there is an automatic veto in effect.
And if we do take the Senate and House and White House, Roberts' pusillanimous gibberish won't matter.
I’m not 100% confident that the republicans, led by Romney, will reverse ObamaCare. I am 100% certain that we need to find out. The alternative, acting now to restore the rule of law directly instead of waiting to see if legislation can restore America, is so costly that we have to give Washington DC this one final chance.
It is time to drop some things: Dept of Ed, Dept of En, all governmental units created after 2008, all Marxists, Progressives, and other domestic enemies, and so on.
Whenever someone raises an issue that puts them on the defensive in discussing it, their song is "Let's move on, let's move on, let's move on!"
Whenever someone raises an issue that puts them on the defensive in discussing it, their song is "Let's move on, let's move on, let's move on!"
There is an excellent article by Jenkins on the WSJ editorial page that suggests that the better approach would be for the Republicans to embrace the mandate, since it was originally their idea, and drop all the rest of the bill.
The idea is to create a mandate that everyone carry some level of health insurance, but let the market decide what that level will be. Jenkins says that the private insurance market will take off and create many different policies at different levels of coverage.
You should read the article. It’s an interesting proposition and one that most of the Obama lovers cannot really fault because it actually provides a solution that Obamacare does not. It would actually lower the cost of health care as people became more responsible for paying for a larger proportion of their care.
Muslims, Christian Scientists, Amish and a few other religions I forget. Before you’re tempted to claim you belong to one of those groups, read this:
No Obamacare for Muslims (EXEMPT!!!!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2901096/posts
They play the same record in everything they do. Over and over and over.
Is everyone in 0blahblah's inner circle so arrogant??? First off, this piece of garbage called 0bamacare was passed on a strict party line vote, with a lot of arm twisting and payoffs. It was passed using reconciliation in the dead of night. The American people spoke loud and clear whenever they got the chance, in 2009 with GOP pickups in Va , MA and NJ which nobody believed, then again in 2010 with the elections not only in congress but many state houses. So, no Lew, the debate is not over, people are not just going to lie down and swallow this crap sandwich.
I may not be a fan of Mittens, but 4 more years of the kenyan is unacceptable. I have a feeling Robert's ruling just re energized Tea Partys all across the country.
“Is everyone in 0blahblah’s inner circle so arrogant???”
ha ha ha.....ignorant is a more apt description...More folks everyday are learning more about this “health care” reform....Nothing in the ACA is health care reform...nothing...Unless one considers removing the ability to get health care “reform”.
This is all about taking over the “Republic” and reducing the “We The People” to a 4th world economy, pushing our “Republic” into a full blown dictatorship.
Iraq and the WOT come to mind.
We never had a debate the FIRST time. The bill wasn't presented for review before Congress voted on it; remember Nancy Pelosi's comment, "You have to pass it in order to find out what's in it. "?
I believe it's time Americans found out what exactly it is that the Democrats forced on them, in a Reconciliation process, and 'deemed' it passed. EVERY Republican running for national office needs to hammer the fact home that Obamacare is more about raising taxes than providing health care, and mentioning some of the NEW taxes included in the legislation. Then Republicans need to vow to REPEAL it, and NOT replace it with their own version of big government health care, but truly identify the problems, and look for genuine free market solutions to them.
That's because you're a douchebag.
FMCDH(BITS)
That’s for sure SuziQ. We never had the first debate. That’s what’s so aggrivating! We elected Scott Brown to go to Washington to let them know how we felt about ObamaCare especially, but they wrangled a vote he could get there.
Thanks for thinking about us Jake!
You’re all heart.
Message to Mr. Lew: “Bite me Sphincter Boy.”
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