November 2011 | See all news in this issue

The big target…

Repealing—or at least undermining— President Obama’s landmark health care reform package tops the Republican wish-list. That is because Obamacare, as it is known, impacts every American and every U.S. business in one way or another. According to its opponents, it is the personification of over-reaching and interference on the part of the federal government. Anyone who doubts this need only watch as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is pilloried by his fellow presidential hopefuls on grounds that his overhaul of health care in Massachusetts provided the blueprint for Obamacare.

Will the GOP succeed in repealing the health care initiatives? It’s doubtful. It’s a whole lot easier to oppose things these days than to get anything passed given the impasse resulting from Republican control of the House and Democratic control of the Senate. However, selected efforts to “defund” implementation of the new law, particularly at the Internal Revenue Service (which must enforce the health insurance mandate) may succeed.

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