well, see, i disagree. i think that the congressional budget office, the independent referee of the actual costs of things passed by the congress, scored the affordable care act as actually reducing the deficit and not as a massive new tax on the american people. that is part of what we will be debating in this upcoming campaign, and i think chief justice roberts and the majority of the court today showed real leadership in finding narrow and appropriate grounds on which to uphold the affordable care act and, thus, making it a central issue in the presidential campaign and in the elections this fall. jenna, in our constitutional system these very tough, debatable positions on public policy like what is the best way to provide health care and what s the best balance between individual liberties and caring for each other through world class health care should appropriately be decided at the ballot box, not by judges. so i m pleased with this decision today that allows us to make this o
you can choose whether you want to have a larger and larger government, more and more intrusive in your life separating you and your doctor, whether you re comfortable with more deficits, higher debt that we ve passed onto the coming generations, whether you re willing to have the federal government put in place a plan that potentially causes you to lose the insurance that you like or whether instead you want to return to a time when the american people will have their own choice in health care, where consumers will be able to make their choices as to what kind of health insurance they want. this is a time of choice for the american people. our mission is clear. if we want to get rid of obamacare, we re going to have to replace president obama. my mission is to make sure we do exactly that. that we return to the american people the privilege they ve always had to live their lives in the way they feel most appropriate, where we don t pass on to coming generations massive deficits and de
congress not to try to undue this legislation that he is so proud of having passed, and yet at same time he points out that he didn t do it because he knew it would be politically popular, obviously the president has been reading the polls and knows that most americans do not like the way that healthcare has been imposed upon them, the healthcare law, and it has actually grown less popular as it has gone along. our chief white house correspondented henry join correspondented henry joins us more with more reaction. reporter: i think you put your finger on it with the president trying to stop this effort by mitt romney and republicans and the hill saying that they now will move to repeal this law. the president saying, let s not refight the battles that we ve had for the last two years. you re right also to note that he wants to frame this as him doing the right thing, it s not about politics, because he s taking a beating on the politics. who would have thought with a conservative lea
why did he take the presidential podium and assure us all we were not using the power to tax. the reason he said that is because he knew he couldn t pass this bill. but when he went to the court his lawyers said, we ll look as the power to tax as a way to uphold the bill. this is disingenuous, it will not stand and i have a bill six months ago introduced with senator brasso that basically said all states should be able to opt out of obamacare and now we should take that bill up. jenna: let me ask you a quick follow-up on that. senator, of course the president did not use the word tax in his address just a few moments ago. right. jenna: he said the sue proepl court reaffirmed a principle, a principle that everyone deserves access to healthcare. if you can afford it you have to buy it if you can t afford it you should have access to affordable healthcare. what is the republican plan for the healthcare market? we do know that these healthcare costs regardless of the state of this law an
towards the financial stability of this country. the republican plan to fix healthcare is not to increase your taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars. the republican plan to fix healthcare is a step-by-step process rather than a 2700 page bill you don t understand. our plan is to allow you to buy healthcare across state lines, to do away with the preexisting illness exclusion, to create more competition not less. to work with democrats and not rely on the power to tax the american people to pass a healthcare bill. the president needs to be held accountable for being disingenuous during the debate. the democrats need to be held accountable for taking the floor of the house and the senate and denying they are taxing the american people. they need to answer the question. now that the court said the only way you can uphold this bill is to use the power to tax, will you accept this as a tax