Boehner defends Romney over health care ruling

(CBS News) In an interview on "Face the Nation," House Speaker John Boehner said he was surprised that the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionally of the health care mandate, but he defended Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's opposition to it, even though the former Massachusetts governor also passed a mandate in his state.

"This is an issue that was in Massachusetts - one state," Boehner said. "That's why we have 50 different states. They're laboratories of democracy. Gov. Romney understands that 'Obamacare' will bankrupt our country and ruin the best health care delivery system in the world."

Boehner said the president's health care plan "is far more than anything, any state had ever comprehended or even tried to do."

The Speaker said the Supreme Court ruling, which defined the mandate as a tax, strengthened his "resolve" to get rid of the law.

"All it really does is strengthen my resolve and resolve of Republicans here in Washington to repeal this awful law," Boehner said.

Boehner told host Norah O'Donnell that the House is going to vote - which it already has more than two dozen times - to repeal the law. "We'll do it one more time!" he told O'Donnell, "to show people we are resolved to get rid of this."

"This is the wrong direction. And while the court upheld it as constitutional, they certainly didn't say it was a good law," Boehner said. "Republicans believe in a common sense, step-by-step approach that will lower health care costs and allow the American people to choose the health insurance they want, not the health insurance the government wants them to have."

In response to questions by O' Donnell on whether Boehner likes any part of the law, he said, "There's always going to be parts of it that are good." The only provision he admitted to liking is the provision that people under 26 can stay on their parents' insurance plan. He pointed to the fact that some health insurance companies independently implemented that provision recently.

However, Speaker Boehner said the entire health care bill needs "to be ripped out by its roots," and that he would repeal the entire bill, even the parts he likes.

"We can replace, when we replace this we can have a common sense debate about which of these provisions ought to stay and which ought to go," he said.

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Boehner defends Romney over health care ruling

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