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Romney says healthcare overturn would 'not be an activist court'
Republican front-runner Mitt Romney disputed on Tuesday President Obama's charge that the Supreme Court would make an "activist" decision in overturning his signature healthcare reform legislation, saying "the court is doing the job they were put in place to do."
The former Massachusetts governor argued that the president's argument didn't hold true because if the court strikes down the individual mandate, "that will not be an activist court, that will be a court following the Constitution, which is precisely what they were designed to do."
"I think it's quite a curious turn of events for him to be complaining about an activist court ... an activist court is one that departs from the Constitution and begins legislating from the bench, that's what we've been complaining about for years" he said during an appearance on Fox News. "In this case, the court is doing the job they were put in place to do."
"Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," Obama said. "And I'd just remind conservative commentators that for years what we’ve heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint — that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good example. And I’m pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step."
Further emphasizing his desire to pivot from the bruising Republican primary to a general-election showdown with the president, Romney also accused Obama of looking for someone to "blame" for the shortcomings of his presidency.
“He’s trying to find someone to blame, some scapegoat that he can point to and say, 'This is the person responsible,' ” Romney said. “The truth is, the buck stops at his desk, and it’s time he realizes it.”
"The president is consumed with trying to find someone to blame for an extraordinarily failed presidency,” Romney added.
The former governor hopes that a string of victories in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia Tuesday night will strengthen his grasp on the Republican nomination and increase pressure on his rival candidates to exit the race. Romney said that there was evidence of prolonged primaries hurting Republican candidates in the past.
“The right thing for us is to get a nominee as soon as we can and begin to focus on Barack Obama," Romney said.
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