Policy

ACA Ruling "hurts President Obama's reelection prospects," and Other GOP Talking Points

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Republicans have wasted no time spinning today's Supreme Court ruling, which upheld the individual mandate, as bad for Obama. Here's a sample of releases, memos, and talking points that Republicans are pushing. Almost all of them focus on the Affordable Care Act as a) bad policy and b) a huge tax increase. 

Here's the Republican National Committee: 

ObamaCare represents a toxic political asset for Obama: It is a two-fold broken promise. First, he failed to keep his promise to reduce healthcare costs. (Health insurance premiums continue to increase.) Second, with his pursuit of ObamaCare, he failed to keep his promise to focus completely on the economy and create jobs.

ObamaCare was bad policy for America from the very beginning. This November, it will be bad politics for Democrats. Voters want real reform, and only Republicans are prepared to pursue it.

And the Romney camp also just released a list of talking points "you can expect from our campaign (surrogates, top advisors, etc) in response to the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare." Here are some of those: 

Let's not confuse what the Court said today. The Court said that Obamacare is constitutional – but not that it's good policy or good for the country.  

  • Yesterday Obamacare wasn't popular, today Obamacare isn't popular.
  • Yesterday Obamacare was bad policy, today Obamacare is bad policy.
  • Obamacare is a job killer – it raises taxes, it cuts Medicare, and it puts government between patients and their doctors.
  • We have a path to defeating Obamacare and it is by electing a new president.
  • We urge everyone in the country who is opposed to Obamacare to join Mitt Romney in his campaign to replace President Obama. To defeat Obamacare, we must defeat President Obama.

Food for thought: In a parallel timeline in which the Supreme Court struck down the mandate or the entire law, what would the Tea Party be doing right now? I'm betting it wouldn't be nearly as ramped up as it is today, and will be between now and November.