John Boehner has a declaration: Obamacare is the “law of the land.”
The House Speaker made the remark, which some are describing as a 180-degree pivot from the GOP’s long-fought battle against the legislation, to ABC News on Thursday.
When asked if he would attempt to fully repeal the health care law, Boehner said, “Well, I think the election changes that. It’s pretty clear that the president was re-elected, Obamacare— is the law of the land." He noted the law would be difficult and expensive to implement and said that, while he may spend time trying to repeal it, there were “no decisions at this point.”
So is it a sign the GOP is willing to accept President Obama as president?
msnbc contributor and The Grio’s Joy Reid told Hardball’s Chris Matthews on Thursday that conservative intellectuals and most GOP operatives understand and accept that Obama is here to stay. But many in the rank-and-file base are “not going to get on board,” she predicted.
Reid added that elected Republicans, particularly in the House “don’t respond to the intellectuals or the operatives; they respond to that same base, and they are hermetically sealed in their own world where talk radio is telling them, and Fox News is telling them, that this is not legitimate and [Obama] is not legitimate.”
The Nation’s John Nichols added that the Republican party is divided between hacks—led by Karl Rove—and true believers. The question is if the “hacks will reassert themselves” over the next four years.
Shortly after Boehner’s interview, a spokesman for the lawmaker walk backed his comments, telling Huffington Post that Boehner “remains committed to repealing the law.”