THE CONSERVATIVE REVIEW - July 3, 2012

Editor's Note:

Are you on Facebook? If you are, check out the Deal of the Day fan page. You get exclusive offers and a new deal every day. It is easy to become a fan, just Click Here and hit the like button...

Thanks for Reading!

***
*-- McConnell: Rout healthcare reform at polls --*
WASHINGTON - Americans should vote Republican in November if they want to repeal President Barack Obama's healthcare law, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says.

"I think the chief justice basically said this is up to the American people to decide. We've got one last chance here to defeat Obamacare. We can do that in the November election," the Kentucky Republican told "Fox News Sunday."

He called the U.S. Senate races in November "a referendum on this job-killing healthcare tax-increasing measure."

McConnell said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which the Senate passed in December 2009 and the House approved in March 2010, was "the single worst piece of legislation that has been passed, certainly in modern times."

The Supreme Court largely upheld the act in a mixed decision.

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority the law's key provision -- the so-called individual mandate requiring all Americans to maintain minimal essential health-insurance coverage or pay a fine, unless exempted for religious beliefs or financial hardship -- was constitutional because it amounted to a tax Congress has a right to impose.

Roberts said the mandate could survive on that basis, even if it failed to pass constitutional muster under the so-called Commerce Clause, which empowers Congress to regulate commerce and which was the heart of the administration's arguments in favor of the law.

McConnell twice refused to say what Republicans would do to extend healthcare coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans, who would be covered under the Affordable Care Act, if they controlled the White House and Congress and then repealed and replaced the law.

Of the healthcare reform law's requirement that people can't be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions, McConnell said Republicans would encourage states to prohibit insurers from denying coverage on that basis.

White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew told the program Americans wanted "the divisive debate on healthcare to stop."

"I actually think the American people want us to focus on the economy, on creating jobs and moving forward," he said.

As to whether the fine for not having minimal insurance is a penalty or a tax, Lew told ABC News' "This Week": "The court found it constitutional. Frankly, what you call it is not the issue."

The Republican-controlled House has scheduled a vote on a measure to overturn the healthcare-reform law in one week.

The vote is widely seen as symbolic since Democrats control the Senate. But congressional aides say the vote will put lawmakers on record for the fall political campaign.

***
Missed an Issue? Visit the Conservative Review Archives