Quotes of the day

Hostility toward the Supreme Court has risen sharply since Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. upheld the Obama health care law. People are apparently angry that the court didn’t rid them of a law they detest. But that’s silly. If Americans want to replace this thing, they should do it themselves…

Republicans say they trust the people. If that’s true, then they won’t waste another futile breath bashing the court for upholding Obamacare. They’ll explicitly tell the country how they would replace it. Democracy is a contest between alternatives, not a deus ex machina stroke from the lords in black robes.

It’s on his to-do list, but U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the odds are against repealing the health care law championed by President Barack Obama…

“If you thought it was a good idea for the federal government to go in this direction, I’d say the odds are still on your side,” McConnell said. “Because it’s a lot harder to undo something than it is to stop it in the first place.”…

If given control of the Senate next year, McConnell said he would support using budget reconciliation rules to repeal it. Doing so would prohibit Senate filibusters and require only 51 votes to succeed. In 2010, Republicans lambasted Democrats for relying on these rules to pass the health care bill, calling their tactics unusual and hyperpartisan.

So now McConnell says he will force the issue before the election and then make repeal of Obamacare priority number one if the GOP takes back the Senate, but the odds are against full repeal. This is code for Republican leaders, timid as they are and driven by polling, keeping parts of Obamacare instead of doing full repeal and starting over.

The truth is many Republicans like parts of Obamacare. The truth is a number of Senate Republicans were willing to vote back in December of 2009 that the individual mandate was unconstitutional while keeping their names on healthcare legislation by Senator Bob Bennett that had an individual mandate.

The truth is with Republican leaders like we have in both Houses, who needs the Democrats? It was not just Democrats responsible for $16 trillion in debt. Even now, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell and the rest are trying to find ways to weasel out of paying down the debt and bring back earmarks.

When Republicans won’t fight on their ground, they just won’t fight.

Even if Republicans win big on Election Day, though, repealing the Affordable Care Act will be a tall order…

For Republicans, the dream of using reconciliation to torpedo the law is predicated on winning a net of three Senate seats, retaining the House and winning the presidency. Then both chambers would have to pass a budget resolution that includes reconciliation instructions. Romney’s vice president would be called upon to break a possible 50-50 roll call in the Senate…

Then, in the Senate, once a reconciliation bill came to the floor, Democrats could challenge specific provisions. They could say, for example, that any savings from repealing certain parts of the healthcare law would only be incidental. If they won those challenges, those parts of the law would remain in place…

“I think the bottom line is, it’s plausible to use reconciliation, but it’s really hard to know which provisions will pass muster,” Binder said.

Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the financial penalty enforcing the individual mandate is within Congress’s constitutional power to “lay and collect Taxes,” and that the mandate and penalty are inextricably linked. This should suffice to enable repeal, through reconciliation, of both the individual and employer mandates, and their respective penalty taxes.

The state exchanges and insurance rules—”guaranteed issue,” which forces an insurer to sell a policy to someone who is already sick, and “community rating,” which severely limits the insurer’s right to charge that person a higher premium—are procedurally more difficult. Yet both are linked to the individual mandate, which increases taxes. Whether they can be repealed in a reconciliation bill will ultimately be decided by the Senate Parliamentarian.

Once the individual mandate is repealed, these popular insurance changes cannot stand by themselves. Without the mandate, people have every incentive to save on premiums and not buy insurance until they fall ill. This will send premiums through the roof for healthy people and, if the government clamps down on increased premiums, destroy private insurance companies. Those Republicans who say they favor legislated guaranteed-issue and community-rating requirements but oppose the mandate will be forced to acknowledge that all three must go.

[W]e all know the GOP’s myriad failures of will and principle over recent years. But it’s time to act, not to bicker. As a practical matter, no Democrat is ever going to vote for repeal. John Tester can film a commercial with a gun to show he’s not one of those wussy coastal libs, but when he leaves Montana, off come the cowboy boots and on go the Birkenstocks and he’s a guaranteed vote against repeal.

A vote for any Democrat is a vote for Obamacare. A vote for anyone but Romney is a vote for Obama. Period. That’s just a fact. One can whine and complain and mope, but unless you are actively supporting the GOP down the line, you are supporting Obama and Obamacare.

But giving some money and your vote, even if Mitt infuriated you in the primary, is not enough. The counterattack needs your time.

It needs you to help with the crummy scut work of elections, knocking on doors and making calls. It needs you getting active in social media to spread the word and fight the smears – on Facebook, on Twitter, wherever. It needs you to talk to your friends and neighbors, particularly the dumb ones who tune into politics about 15 minutes before the polls open. The dumb ones are natural Obama voters and require your special attention.

“All that [Court ruling] did was energize conservatives,” declared Rasmussen in an exclusive interview on Monday. “The conservative interest in the election was already much higher than that of moderates and liberals. It went up to really stratospheric levels right after the ruling. We don’t know if that will continue or if it’s just a temporary response to the news cycle.”…

“Now as for that vote next week, while people were calling it symbolic, one of the interesting things to watch will be how many Democratic congressmen will sign on and support the repeal,” Rasmussen said. “There will probably be a fair number of Democratic members of Congress who are too afraid for their own future to vote in support of the healthcare law.”

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News today, Senator McConnell put all … fears to rest. “I have said many times that if I’m the leader of the majority next year, I commit to the American people that the repeal of ‘Obamacare’ will be job one,” he reiterated. “That includes pursuing reconciliation. What people need to understand is that this is literally a fight for the future of our country and Democrats have proven during this debate that they will stop at nothing to protect this massive expansion of government into our lives and our health care. We need to be aware that this will take every ounce of our energy to accomplish.”

McConnell went on to explain that the fight would not stop with the election: “Our success is dependent upon the voices of the many who are concerned about Obamacare to get involved and stay involved. Do not shut up, do not sit down, do not be intimidated. Keep fighting with every ounce of energy you have. We’ll do the same. The road to repeal begins with a Republican Senate and Mitt Romney in the White House, but it won’t end for me until this historic mistake is wiped off the books for good.”

• Sebelius touts ObamaCare as a boon to graduates instead of the war on the young it actually is
• Chuck Todd: The Obama administration is trying to “criminalize journalism”
• Yet another union boss takes umbrage with ObamaCare

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