House Republican leaders aren’t predicting whether the Supreme Court
will uphold President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, but they are using
oral arguments on the landmark case to highlight the law’s unpopularity.
A parade of senior GOP lawmakers assailed the two-year-old law following a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said it had employers “scared to death” to hire more workers.
{mosads}Still, Boehner demurred for a second time in a week when asked what he thought the high court would do with the case.
“I’m not going to prejudge what the Supreme Court is going to do,” Boehner told reporters.
Last week, the Speaker said he had “no idea” how the court would rule on healthcare or its individual mandate.
Boehner added on Tuesday that employers in his district continued to complain about the law, which has yet to take full effect.
“They made it clear to me that ObamaCare is getting in the way of their willingness to hire more people,” he said. “That’s the immediate crisis that we have. The American people are still asking the question, ‘Where are the jobs?’”
“Employers are sitting on their hands because they’re scared to death of what ObamaCare is going to mean to their business, along with all these other policies,” the Speaker added.
Other House Republicans noted a new poll from CBS News and The New York Times finding that two-thirds of respondents wanted the Supreme Court to overturn part or all of the healthcare law.