(Newt Gingrich) – On Tuesday, November 2nd, voters from across the country sent the clear message that they’re fed up with President Obama’s anti-jobs, big-government agenda. Tax-and-spend liberals who supported the stimulus, cap and trade energy taxes, and a government takeover of health care were voted out of office in droves in the largest wave election in 70 years.
And with all of the new voices in Congress, conservatives have an historic opportunity to change the course of the nation by reducing spending, cutting taxes, and creating an environment in which jobs can finally be created again in the private sector in the numbers that we need to cut the unemployment rate in half.
The first step they must take, however, is to repeal and replace all of the policies passed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that resulted in putting more people on food stamps and prevented more people from taking home paychecks.
And at the top of the list is the repeal of ObamaCare.
No matter how much the new Congress does to encourage private sector growth, ObamaCare will become a severe drag on the economy and lead to lower quality care. Many businesses facing unknown tax hikes and enormous regulations from this law will not hire additional full time workers.
The Obama-Pelosi-Reid team also ignores the fact that major companies like McDonald’s, 3M, and Boeing have said the new taxes and mandates will force them to drop coverage or lay off workers. Instead of listening to them, the Obama administration has threatened those who dare to blame higher taxes and more regulation for an inability to grow their businesses.
Here are some facts you need to know about ObamaCare:
• Costs taxpayers a staggering $1 trillion over the next decade.
• Increases health care spending by more than $200 billion.
• Raises drug prices and the cost of premiums.
• Raises taxes on small businesses.
• Burdens state governments with costs nearing $10 billion between 2014 and 2019.
• Forces companies to drop employer-provided health coverage for workers.
• Incentivizes individuals to drop their own coverage, pay a penalty, and only get health insurance when they get sick.
Despite all these problems, President Obama and his liberal allies still defend the law as good for American business. But this should not be surprising; they still defend the $787 billion stimulus legislation as good for job creation. Put simply, as long as ObamaCare is the law of the land, America will not be providing an environment that allows businesses to grow, which means accepting stagnant growth and high unemployment as the new normal.
We shouldn’t have to accept that. For that reason, we must begin the process of repealing this destructive law and replacing it with common sense health reforms.
Repeal and replace will not happen overnight and it will not happen after a week’s worth of debate in Congress. Repeal will require a grassroots movement that puts strong and sustained pressure on Washington.
The time to start that movement is today.
Over the next few weeks we will be very active in starting the movement to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
We intend for this advocacy effort to be our biggest to date.
Thanks for everything you did to elect job creators last week, and thank you for all that you will do to keep the pressure on the new representatives in Congress to do the right thing.
(Mr. Gingrich is a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and General Chairman of American Solutions)
