Freedom Line Blog

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino explains why ObamaCare still matters and why the American people must continue to hold their representatives in Congress accountable on the issue.

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino discusses the importance of the fight to defund ObamaCare.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 244-185 this afternoon to repeal ObamaCare. 

Five Democrats joined all Republicans in the House to support the repeal measure.  The five Democrats included:

• Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)
• Rep. Larry Kissell (D-NC)
• Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
• Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)
• Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK)

McIntyre, Ross and Boren all voted for repeal in 2011.  Matheson and Kissell, both facing tough reelection fights, voted against repeal last year and changed their votes today.

Senator Mitch McConnell today announced that he will try to force a Senate vote on a measure to fully repeal ObamaCare as early as this week. 

Specifically, The Hill is reporting that the Republican Leader plans to offer the repeal measure as an amendment to the to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, which is currently being debated on the Senate floor.  McConnell could offer the amendment, which is anticipated to be identical the the repeal bill that recently passed in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, as early as this afternoon.  A procedural vote on the amendment is expected to occur shortly thereafter. 

Call your Senators right now and urge them to vote “YES” on Senator McConnell’s amendment to repeal ObamaCare.  Find your Senators and their phone numbers here.

CFIF VP of Legal and Public Affairs Timothy Lee yesterday appeared on The Lars Larson radio show to discuss the effort to repeal ObamaCare. Listen to the interview below.

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino challenges the professional cynics in Washington who continue to claim that, despite the House vote this week to repeal ObamaCare, full repeal will never become a reality.  Giachino further explains why the skeptics are missing three important points and how the House vote was indeed the beginning of the end for ObamaCare.

While House Republicans are planning on bringing the repeal of Obamacare to a vote next week, even the staunchest opponents of the healthcare law admit that a fullblown reversal isn’t coming anytime soon.

With that in mind, healthcare analyst Avik Roy lays out the practical implications for conservatives in a piece on National Review Online. Roy is sagacious across the board, but his delineation of the consequences for the 2012 presidential election are especially pertinent — and jarring:

We must remind ourselves of the electoral realities. For Republicans to succeed in repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), they will need to control the House, the Senate, and the White House. From a political standpoint, if Republicans are not able to achieve this in 2012, they are unlikely ever to repeal Obamacare.

 This means that influential Republican activists must — must — coalesce around the most electable Republican presidential candidate who can articulate conservative health-care principles. This is no time for single-issue small-ball or personal score-settling. A GOP nominee who passes all the litmus tests but can’t win in November would only succeed in making Obamacare permanent. One who can win but isn’t capable of pushing for real health-care reform wouldn’t be much better.

Roy is right. Who the Republican nominee is in 2012 could well determine how free of a nation the United States is for the forseeable future. Vote accordingly.