11/4/2010 7:22:20 PM ET
WASHINGTON — The Senate's Republican leader has a simple
postelection message for President Barack Obama: Move toward the GOP or get no
help from its lawmakers.
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Two days after Republicans scored big victories in
congressional elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday
offered an aggressive assessment of the results, calling for votes to erode the
reach of the health care law that was a signature of the Obama administration.
"That means that we can — and should — propose and vote
on straight repeal, repeatedly," McConnell said.
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McConnell's remarks, in a speech delivered to the
conservative Heritage Foundation, acknowledged that Obama would veto such
legislation, which probably would be blocked by the president's fellow
Democrats in the Senate anyway.
He said the only way Republicans in Congress can achieve
their goals is "to put someone in the White House who won't veto" a
repeal of Obama's health care reform, spending cuts and shrinking the
government.
More realistically, McConnell said Republicans, who will
hold a majority in next year's House of Representatives, should aim to hobble
the healthcare law by "denying funds for implementation" of the
measure. Annual spending bills for agencies, including ones that implement the
healthcare law, are normally written first in the House.
McConnell said the results of the midterms were not about
Republicans but instead about Democrats, who he said got an "F." He
said he expects Democrats will begin peeling off of their base to start
supporting GOP initiatives.
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"Every one of the 23 Democrats up [for re-election] in
the next cycle have a clear understanding of what happened Tuesday,"
McConnell said. "I think we have major opportunities for bipartisan
coalitions to support what we want to do."
McConnell eyes Democrats up for re-election in 2012
McConnell's confrontational tone was in sharp contrast to
the chastened posture Obama took Wednesday in the face of a new Republican
controlled House and Republican gains in the Senate.
On Wednesday, likely incoming House Speaker John Boehner
said the he promised to be honest with Obama and the two agreed to work
together on cutting spending and creating jobs, even though Republicans
campaigned on vows to turn back much of Obama's agenda.
Democrats accused Republicans of putting the interests of
large corporations ahead of families.
"It speaks volumes that the first thing on Republicans'
'to do' list is to give power back to big health insurance companies,"
said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Story: Nixing — or 'fixing' — health law? Don't hold your
breath
Kim Monk, a healthcare analyst for Capital Alpha Partners in
Washington, suggested Republican efforts to repeal parts of the new law could
run up against the harsh reality of huge U.S. budget deficits.
"Even tweaks are going to cost money and that's a
problem because it's a deficit-cutting environment," she said in a
telephone interview.
Instead, Republicans most likely would continue speaking out
against the law "just to keep the message alive. This is all about 2012
(election) strategy," she said.
The healthcare law, passed this year over Republican
objections, provided the most sweeping reforms of the U.S. healthcare industry
in decades. It aims to provide coverage to millions of people who have been
going without insurance.
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It imposes tough new standards on health insurers such as
Aetna Inc and WellPoint Inc and requires all Americans to buy health insurance
policies starting in 2014 or face fines, among other changes.
The Senate Republican leader said that he would attempt to
stage votes in his chamber next year "against its most egregious
provisions" of the law.
Those could include measures that penalize large employers
if they do not offer health insurance to their workers and mandates on
individuals to purchase health insurance.
McConnell's own approval rating, per a September NBC/Wall
Street Journal poll, is 12 percent positive, 20 percent neutral and 18 percent
negative, with another 50 percent responding that they did not have an opinion
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