Gingrich: Obamacare Repeal 'Defining Issue of Fall Campaign'

The Supreme Court ruling in favor of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul will do little to reduce the uncertainty that is preventing employers filling job openings, former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich predicted.

Instead that doubt will continue at least until November when voters will decide whether to install a Republican president and Congress that would repeal the law, he said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV.

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Speaking from Italy, the former House speaker said, “Unless the Congress repeals it, it’s going to be law. And unless Obama is defeated for president, it’s going to be law.

“So that guarantees that the uncertainty continues at least until November.

“It also means that those businesses that have refused to hire people because of their fear of the cost of the mandates are going to continue to refuse to hire people.”

But Gingrich said he was hopeful that Democratic senators facing elections in November will put pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put the issue to a vote this summer. The GOP-controlled House has already scheduled a vote for the second week of July.

“You’ll see pressure in the Senate,” he said. “You’ll see Sen. Reid on behalf of the Democrats trying to block a vote in the Senate."

He named Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida and Jon Tester of Montana as two who are up before voters who will now be “in the hot seat” over a vote.

“The voters are going to have their attention focused, once again, on Obamacare,” he said.

“People were sort of assuming the Supreme Court would solve the problem for them and now it’s put back in the lap of the American people and of their legislative and presidential leadership.

“There was a pretty in-depth Pew poll about a week ago that said that clearly, the Republican version of what this bill is about, has been winning and it’s clear the American people are increasingly opposed, by about a 20 point margin, something like 56 to 36 in favor of repeal of the act.

“When people actually calculate how big a tax the mandate is, the whole reason Obama didn’t want to consider it a tax, is that the bill will become tremendously unpopular.

“People realize that this is a giant government-imposed tax and future Congresses could raise that tax and make it even higher.

“When those numbers come out in the next two or three days you will see an even deeper opposition to Obamacare,” he predicted.

Gingrich said that Chief Justice John Roberts’ reason for siding with the liberals on the bench was “the worst possible grounds for Obama.”

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“I’m very surprised that he came down like this. I had not contemplated the tax solution because Obama had been so adamant that it was not a tax.

“This ruling could go down as a major mistake by Roberts or as an extraordinarily clever move and we won’t know for a long time which it is. He clearly has upheld the law, which must make Obama and his supporters happy, but on the other hand, he’s upheld the law on the worst possible grounds for them.”

Gingrich said Roberts had “placed before the country a firm, clear choice. If you want the largest tax increase in history, keep Obamacare. If you want to repeal the largest tax increase in history, repeal Obamacare.

“Now it’s appropriately up to the elected legislators and the elected president and this will … become the defining issues of the fall campaign.”