The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has indicated it will support the Republican legislation in the House of Representatives to repeal President Obama’s health care reform law but signaled that the Chamber will not employ the same “scorched-earth” tactics it utilized last year.
The Chamber’s President, Tom Donohue, was a leader in the fight against the health care initiative, and recently, during a speech on the state of American business, said “We see the upcoming House vote [to repeal the health care reform law] … as an opportunity for everyone to take a fresh look at health care reform and to replace unworkable approaches with more efficient and effective measures that will lower costs, expand access and improve quality.” Donohue pointed to the more than 200 waivers to the law that the administration has granted as an indication of a “revealing acknowledgment that the law is not totally workable.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that the economy will grow 3.2% and create up to 2.6 million jobs by the end of 2011. Donohue cautioned that new foreclosures, rising oil prices and national security threats could change that outlook. Donohue urges that Congress must rein in spending and pledge to “support strong proposals even if we don’t like all the details.” As previously reported in the Ahlers & Cressman blog, the U.S. District Court of Virginia found the health care bill unconstitutional, http://www.ac-lawyers.com/blog_article.php?article=223, and State Attorney General McKenna has brought a lawsuit to declare the health care bill unconstitutional here in Washington. http://www.atg.wa.gov/2010healthcarelawsuit.aspx
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