Mitt Romney has vowed that on his first day as president, he would act to repeal President Obama’s health-care law, thus fulfilling a long-standing promise.
But the reality for a President Romney would be more complicated.
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Full text of President Obama’s speech on national security
“We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us,” the president said.
Unless Republicans gain huge numbers in Congress, he probably would not have the votes to simply repeal the entire law.
From the White House, he could instruct the Department of Health and Human Services to drag its feet, pushing back deadlines and turning to an army of lawyers and consultants to figure out how to exploit the law’s weaknesses. But that kind of administrative muscle flexing could bring its own political problems.
“The simple answer is there’s nothing Romney can do on the first day to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but he could do a great deal to gum up the works,” said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University.
Nearly two weeks after the Supreme Court upheld most of the law, its future remains unsettled, with the November election its next major hurdle. Americans have been stubbornly divided over the law, with Republican voters highly unified in their opposition to the largest new federal social program in decades.
In what has become a common Washington ritual, House Republicans are scheduled again Wednesday to vote on a repeal of the law. It will be the 33rd time Republicans have tried to undo all or part of the law since its passage in 2010 and the first since the court decision. As in those previous attempts, it is almost purely symbolic because it is unlikely to pass muster in the Democratic-led Senate.
Despite Romney’s role in passing a similar overhaul while governor of Massachusetts, he has been steadfast in his opposition to the law, a factor that has been key to his winning over deeply conservative voters.
As a result, many predict that he would move decisively and aggressively to make good on that promise if elected. Still, doing so would carry political pitfalls because millions of Americans not only support the law, but also are already benefiting from some of its provisions, such as one that requires insurance companies to cover children with preexisting conditions.
Others say Romney would be held responsible for the health-care system that might be reshaped by his actions.
“He belongs to a very conservative party that hates this bill, many members of which have sworn that they’d rather eat ground glass than let this law go forward,” said Henry J. Aaron, a senior fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. “But there is the conflicting problem of, ‘If you break it, you own it.’ [He will own] anything that goes wrong with the health-care system down the road.”
Then there is the matter of what Romney would be able to do as president.
He has said that on Day One in office, he will “act to repeal Obamacare” and issue waivers to all 50 states exempting them from the law’s requirements. But neither will be so easy to pull off.
Few political analysts expect the GOP to have a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate come January, the advantage needed to pass most controversial legislation these days. Without it, Romney would have little chance of pushing a repeal bill through Congress.
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