President Barack Obama made clear in a press conference Wednesday that if, and when, Republicans try to repeal Obamacare, he’ll veto the bill.
“On health care, there are certainly some lines I’m going to draw,” Obama said Wednesday in a press conference on the GOP electoral sweep. “Repeal of the law I won’t sign.”
That sets Obama up for two years of battles with presumptive majority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who remains fully committed to complete repeal of the health-care law, according to his spokesman. McConnell will “continue to lead efforts to repeal and replace” Obamacare, spokesman Brain McGuire told The Daily Caller. (RELATED: McConnell May Be Backing Off Obamacare Repeal)
But Obama won’t make the process easy. McConnell warned in his own press conference Wednesday that with Obama in the White House, even the Senate passing a bill won’t be enough.
“If I had the ability, obviously I would get rid of it,” McConnell said about Obamacare, before admitting Obama will put a damper on those efforts: “Obviously, it’s also true, he’s still there.”
“He knows it won’t be easy, but he also believes that if Republicans are fortunate enough to take back the majority we’ll owe it to the American people to try through votes on full repeal, the bill’s most onerous provisions, and reconciliation,” McGuire said in a statement.
McConnell has been more optimistic about the Senate’s ability to pass piecemeal legislation to pull back certain unpopular parts of the health care law. The minority leader advanced several ideas Wednesday to help dismantle Obamacare piece by piece in the face of Obama’s opposition, but Obama suggested he’d push back against those attempts as well.
“In some cases there may be recommendations that Republicans have for changes that would undermine the structure of the law, and I’ll be very honest with them about that and say, ‘Look, the law doesn’t work if you pull out this piece or that piece,'” Obama said Wednesday.
McConnell said the GOP Senate would likely target the medical device tax, the individual mandate and the 30 hour full-time work week. The GOP may have bipartisan support on some of the initiatives as well, putting even more pressure on the White House to let some anti-Obamacare legislation through.
