Health law debate spins on Sunday talk shows

Roll Call: Health Care Debate Continues On Sunday Talk Shows
Democrats said it's time to move on from the health care debate, while Republicans said they're ready to keep fighting. In appearances on Sunday talk shows, Members of Congress took starkly different views of the next move after the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the 2010 health care law. On "Fox News Sunday," White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew said Americans have grown tired of relitigating the health care law in political debate. He said it's time to "get on with implementation." On the same program, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Supreme Court decision means the case will now be decided in the court of public opinion (Livingston, 7/1).

Roll Call: Mitch McConnell: GOP Only Needs 51 Votes To Overturn Mandate
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated today that Republicans believe they will only need 51 votes to overturn the centerpiece of the 2010 health care law. In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," the Kentucky Republican repeatedly referred to the mandate that individuals buy health insurance as a tax, citing the recent Supreme Court decision. If Republicans take the majority in the Senate in the 2012 elections, McConnell said, he would use budget reconciliation to overturn the law -; a move that would not be subject to the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster (Livingston, 7/1).

Bloomberg: Boehner Says Obama's Health-Care Law Needs Full Repeal
House Speaker John Boehner vowed to repeal President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul in full, even as he described some conditions in the law as "sound." … "While the Court upheld it as constitutional, they certainly didn't say that it was a good law," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told CBS's "Face the Nation" program in an interview (Rastello, 7/1).

Reuters: Top Republicans Press Healthcare Law Repeal Effort
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" (Dunham, 7/1).

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wide Swath Of Health Care Law Makes Room For Spin, Confusion
Gov. Scott Walker says Obamacare will "reduce access for those truly in need of assistance." Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) says the health care reform law "brings us closer to providing health care to all Americans at a cost we can afford." … In an era when the country is fiercely divided politically, the size and complexity of the law have made it easier for both sides to spin it as they please. So the law, whose fundamental intention was to provide affordable health care to tens of millions who currently are uninsured, became the focus of a philosophical disagreement over the role of government in our society (Boulton, 6/30).

Politico: Jindal: Romney Never Favored National Individual Mandate
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal asserted on Sunday that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney never favored an individual mandate as part of health care reform at the federal level, notwithstanding a video that shows him calling that idea "essential." "Mitt Romney's always been against the national mandate," Jindal declared on NBC's "Meet The Press." The Republican governor's assertion came just after NBC host David Gregory played a 2006 video unearthed by the Democratic-oriented group American Bridge 21st Century (Gerstein, 7/1).