The Supreme Court “blew the cover” of President Barack Obama and the Democrats when it ruled that the provisions of the healthcare law are indeed a tax, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Newsmax in an exclusive interview.
“This bill was sold on a deception and the deception was that the bill was not a tax. The Supreme Court made it clear that the bill is a tax, one of the biggest tax increases in American history,” McConnell told Newsmax.TV shortly after Chief Justice John Roberts issued the decision on Thursday.
Watch the exclusive video below.
And McConnell pledged that the court’s decision would make no difference to the GOP’s plan to repeal Obamacare as soon as possible.
“Americans want it repealed and that’s precisely what we intend to do. Americans want us to start over and today’s decision doesn’t change anything in that respect.
“Many laws have been upheld as constitutional that were still mistakes and the American people know how they feel about this healthcare attack and we need to repeal the whole thing and replace it with more modest reforms that deal with the issue of cost and choice.
“If the American people give us a new president and a new Senate, I assure you repeal of Obamacare will be job one in the Senate.”
But he admitted that without those changes after the election it will be “difficult to address this in a way that it ought to be addressed — in other words repealed and replaced — unless we have a new president and a new Senate.”
McConnell predicted that healthcare is now bound to be a major issue in the November elections. “It’s a job killer,” he said. “We all know the economy and jobs are the number one issue in the country.
“Obamacare has already cost us plenty of jobs — the Congressional Budget Office says it will cost us a million jobs if fully implemented. This bill is something the American people don’t need and don’t want and it will be a big issue in the fall campaign.
But he refused to be drawn on Roberts’ decision to side with the liberal majority in declaring the law constitutional. “I’m not going to attack the court,” he said. “We were certainly disappointed in the outcome.
“But the Chief’s remarks with regard to eliminating the deception that had been perpetrated on the American people that somehow this was not a tax, were helpful. It is a tax, the court has said it’s a tax and it’s a huge tax that needs to be repealed.
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