For more than a week now, there has been a vigorous debate and discussion over the Supreme Court’s decision, which ruled ObamaCare in violation of the Commerce Clause, while upholding the freedom-threatening individual mandate as a tax. And a mega tax increase it is. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, 76% of Americans with incomes of $120,000 or less will pick up the tab.
The Supreme Court decision essentially calls out the president and his leftist allies in the House and Senate. These liberals rammed ObamaCare through by deceiving the American people.
First it was not a tax when they had to pass it, then it was a tax when they needed to uphold it, and now it is not a tax again because they have to defend it. This takes Washington double speak and deception to a whole new level. The only intellectually honest vote for any ,ember of Congress with any integrity is for repeal, unless you want to face the charge of dishonestly passing a massive tax increase while the economy is tanking.
In 2010 Republicans nearly swept the mid-term elections and took back the House based in large measure on a promise to repeal ObamaCare. Since ObamaCare passed, poll after poll has demonstrated the American people stand firm against this terrible law. But the hell with the public. Sen. Harry Reid’s do-nothing, liberal Senate has refused even to give the repeal legislation a simple up-or-down vote. The majority of Americans never supported this monstrosity from day one. I have to wonder what representative democracy means when elected representatives refuse to even consider what their constituents want.
ForAmerica and its 2.7 million members are mobilized and ready to hold our elected officials accountable for the votes they cast on the most important legislative issue of a generation. We will be keeping track and scoring every vote on the ObamaCare repeal through our recently announced Freedom Meter.
We are holding lawmakers responsible not only for what they do on an up-or-down vote, but also how they vote on measures designed to keep the ObamaCare repeal legislation from such a vote. These types of parliamentary delay tactics initiated by Reid and other ObamaClones in the Senate will likely continue. But those playing along with Senator Reid’s game, particularly those up for re-election, are playing Russian roulette with their political futures if they don’t work to force a vote on the House repeal bill that will likely pass on July 11.
In the Senate there must be an up-or-down vote on this issue. The people demand it. Must we remind our lawmakers that they were elected to serve the American people? We will not be fooled by the Senate’s amendments and motions to table: we demand a clean vote to repeal ObamaCare.
It is incumbent on Sen. Mitch McConnell and all of the Senate Republicans to do everything in their power to force Harry Reid to do his job and call the repeal legislation to the floor for a vote. It is not enough to ask the Democrats nicely for a vote. Republican Senators must insist that the Senate cannot proceed onto anything else until ObamaCare comes to a vote; and then they must follow through.
It is equally important that those Democrats who would tell their constituents they would vote to repeal ObamaCare, demand their leadership bring this to a vote.
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who said he supported repeal when he ran in 2010, needs to stick to his promises and demand the Senate vote on ObamaCare. If Reid refuses to allow a vote, then Mr. Manchin owes West Virginians a commitment to vote for a new majority leader if they choose to send him back to the Senate. For him to do anything less means that he’s not being honest with them.
This also means the ObamaClones -- former DNC Chairman, current Senate candidate Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) - need to heed the calls of their constituents and demand their leadership to call for a vote on repeal, and then vote to repeal this massive tax increase.
They all either voted for, or supported, a cruel deception that stuck Americans with the largest tax increase in history in the midst of a recession – a recession that might take a double dip just as Americans head to the polls this November.
The Supreme Court does not need to be responsive to the people but our elected officials do. Whatever decisions they make, come November, the only votes that count are those of the people, the same people that overwhelmingly reject ObamaCare and the massive tax increase it has spurned.
Get the recap of top opinion commentary and original content throughout the week.