McConnell: Waivers Make Obamacare Individual Mandate 'Legal Equivalent of Swiss Cheese'

'And there's a broader point here: If Washington Democrats think Obamacare is so bad that they need to exempt that many people from its mandates, then why shouldn't we just remove that hardship for everyone? Doesn't the Middle Class deserve a break too?'

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor calling on Washington Democrats to eliminate job-destroying Obamacare mandates and focus instead on job-creating legislation:

"I'd like to start by acknowledging the Majority Leader's decision to remove extraneous IMF provisions from the Ukraine bill.

"As I noted yesterday, no legislation could've passed with those provisions included. So it's a positive step forward. We're glad he took our advice, and now Congress will be able to pass an effective bill on the matter soon.

"Now, on another matter.

"President Obama and his Washington Democrat allies are well into their sixth year of presiding over our economy.

"And yet, the jobs recovery they keep promising us just never seems to materialize.

"You have to give Washington Democrats at least some credit though.

"They've tried regulating, taxing, spending, and "stimulating" just about everything their ideology will allow.

"The problem is that their ideology doesn't work.

"Many of their policies just end up making things worse.

"Take Obamacare.

"They promised the sun and the moon to sell this thing.

"They said it would create jobs.

"They also said it would improve the economy, lower premiums, and insure the uninsured without causing Americans to lose their insurance, their doctors, or their hospitals.

"The kind of claims that would've made Billy Mays blush.

"But now, Americans know better.

"Evidence shows that not only will Obamacare encourage less job creation, but that it's also making the economy worse, that it's driving premiums higher, and that it won't come anywhere near insuring all the uninsured - while causing millions of Americans to lose the insurance and the doctors they were promised they could keep.

"It's also a law that's unravelling before our very eyes. As we read this week, the Administration has now handed out so many waivers, special favors, and exemptions to help Democrats out politically, that the heart of the law - the individual mandate - may no longer even be viable.

"It's basically become the legal equivalent of Swiss cheese.

"And there's a broader point here: If Washington Democrats think Obamacare is so bad that they need to exempt that many people from its mandates, then why shouldn't we just remove that hardship for everyone?

"Doesn't the Middle Class deserve a break too?

"And why shouldn't we repeal the 30-hour workweek created by Obamacare - a provision that reduces take-home pay for the middle class?

"Why shouldn't we do away with Obamacare's job-killing medical device tax - something even many Democrats would vote to abolish if the Majority Leader would allow it?

"What I'm saying is, if Washington Democrats are actually serious about job creation, then show it.

"Then work with us to eliminate the things that hurt jobs, that hold Americans back from a real recovery - like these job-killing Obamacare mandates - and work with us to enact things that can actually help create jobs. Approving the Keystone Pipeline would create thousands of jobs right away. Passing trade legislation - legislation President Obama has already endorsed, by the way - would help create even more.

"But Washington Democrats need to work collaboratively with us to make those things happen.

"And yet, this morning's New York Times highlights their strategy for the rest of the year, and it can be summed up in three words: political show votes. Get this, their plan is not to pass legislation, but to time show votes to, quote, 'coincide with campaign-style trips by President Obama.' Rather than take up House-passed jobs bills that would actually help middle-class Americans, they plan yet another year of turning the Senate floor into a campaign studio.

"So I'm asking Washington Democrats to put the ideology and political show votes aside for once and finally join us, join us to give the American people what they've been asking for along: more jobs, more opportunity, and an economy that works for the Middle Class again."

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