Romney: To kill health law, Obama must go

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Thursday that the Supreme Court ruling upholding President Obama’s health care law means that the only way now to remove the law is to remove the president in the November election.

“This is a time of choice for the American people. Our mission is clear: If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we have to replace President Obama,” Mr. Romney said, during a brief press conference across the street from the U.S. Capitol.

Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, claimed that the Affordable Care Act amounts to a $500 billion tax increase and would strip $500 billion from the Medicare program. Under the law, he warned, tens of millions of Americans would have to change their health care providers, trillions of dollars would be lumped onto the national debt, and jobs would be lost.

He also provided a sneak peak of what he might offer instead of the law, saying that as president he would support a proposal that allows people to keep their current health coverage and ensure that people with pre-existing health problems would not lose their coverage.

“If we want good jobs and a bright economic future for ourselves and for our kids, we must replace Obamacare,” Mr. Romney said. “That is my mission, that is our work, and I am asking the people of America to join me. If you don’t want the course that President Obama has put us on, if you want instead a course that the founders envisioned, then join me in this effort. Help us defeat Obamacare; help us defeat the liberal agenda that makes government too big, too intrusive and that is killing jobs across this great country.”