McConnell, Boehner Vow Continued Efforts To Repeal Obamacare

Obama's Regulatory Overreach
on Keystone Pipeline - By Tony Branco

Today In Washington, D.C. - July 2, 2012:
Congress (both House and Senate) are in 4th of July recess period until Monday, July 9, 2012.

Yesterday, the Senate voted 74-19 to adopt the conference report on H.R. 4348, the highway bill. The provision to approve the Keystone XL pipeline favered by the House was removed and the Senate's $7 billion in proposed tax hikes was removed.  The H.R. 4348 Conference Report reauthorized federal surface transportation programs and extends the authority to appropriate funds from the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for federal highway and surface transportation programs for two years, through September 30, 2014, provides a one-year extension of current student loan interest rates and reauthorized the National Flood Insurance Program.

Yesterday the House passed (373-52 ) the above referenced conference report on H.R. 4348, the highway bill.; The House also passed (261-16) HR 5972 - Fiscal 2013 Dept of Transportation-HUD spending - Appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013 and HR 6064 (by voice vote) - "An extension of Federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funded out of the Highway Trust Fund pending enactment of a multiyear law reauthorizing such programs.

Obama's Regulatory Overreach on Keystone Pipeline and Energy At Odds With the American People:
A new WaPo/ABC poll out today confirms that the Obama administration's regulatory overreach on energy issues has become an increasing problem for the President on the campaign trail. In the poll of registered voters, a clear majority - including a majority of politically-important Independents - support creation of the pipeline.

Below are key results from The Hill:
--“A new poll shows that 62 percent of registered voters favor approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, a project Mitt Romney has pledged to green-light on “day one” if elected while the Obama administration favors more review.”
--“The finding suggests that President Obama may be vulnerable to ongoing election-season attacks from Republicans and conservative groups, who have bashed him for failing to grant a permit for TransCanada Corp’s pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.”
--“On Keystone, 62 percent of registered voters say the federal government should approve the pipeline, while just 18 percent say it should not be authorized. Among Independents, 57 percent support approval, compared to 82 percent of Republicans and 48 percent of Democrats.”
--“In the same poll, 82 percent of registered voters say the pipeline would create a significant number of jobs, and the belief is widely held across party identifications.”

Republican Congressional Leaders Vow To Continue Efforts To Repeal Obamacare:
Reuters reports, “The two top Republicans in Congress vowed on Sunday to push ahead with efforts to repeal President Barack Obama’s healthcare law despite the Supreme Court upholding it, but the White House said it is time to stop fighting and start implementing it. ‘This has to be ripped out by its roots,’ House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said of the 2010 law on the CBS program ‘Face the Nation.’ Boehner added: ‘We will not flinch from our resolve to make sure this law is repealed in its entirety.’ The House, controlled by Republicans, has scheduled a vote on July 11 to repeal the law. The Democratic-led Senate, as it has done in the past, is certain to block any repeal legislation.”

Reuters adds, “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will insist that the Democrats who control the chamber hold a vote before the election on repealing the law. ‘If I’m the leader of the majority next year, I commit to the American people that the repeal of “Obamacare” will be job one,’ . . . ‘This is the single worst piece of legislation that’s been passed, certainly in modern times. And it will be an issue, a big issue, in the fall election,’ McConnell said. ‘We’ve got one last chance here to defeat Obamacare. We can do that in the November election,’. . . .”

On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, McConnell said, “The President said [the individual mandate] was not a tax and the Supreme Court which has the final say said it is a tax. The tax is going to be levied, 77 percent of it will be levied on Americans making less than $120,000 a year. So it's a middle class tax increase. Beyond that, Chris, the core of the bill it is worth reminding people is a half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare – that's hospitals, nursing homes, home health care and the like, and a $500 billion tax increase. The Congressional Budget Office said it is also a job killer. It will cost the economy between 800,000 and a million jobs.”

He emphasized, “The single best thing we could do for the American health care system is to get rid of Obamacare, get rid of the half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, get rid of the half a trillion dollars in taxes. In other words, the single biggest step we could take in the direction of improving American health care is to get rid of this monstrosity.”

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