Sen. Johnson: Obama health law 'greatest assault on our freedom'

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Monday that President Obama's signature healthcare law is the greatest threat to liberty in his lifetime.

Johnson, an outspoken conservative, said he ran for Senate mostly out of opposition to the Affordable Care Act. He criticized the law in an interview with the Atlas Society, a think tank inspired by the Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

"Well, I think Americans are a little bit like a bunch of frogs in that pot of water and the water's being brought up to a boil," Johnson said. "And I think we're losing freedoms across the board. The reason I ran really was in reaction to the passage of the healthcare law, which I think is really the greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime."

Describing the Supreme Court's oral arguments over the healthcare law, Johnson compared the country to a hostage suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, in which captives become loyal to their captors.

"So we're going to the Supreme Court, begging them please, please allow us this one last shred of freedom," he said in the Atlas Society interview. "Allow us the freedom to decide what product we're going to purchase or not purchase. And unfortunately for Americans, for our freedoms, we were denied that right."

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the healthcare law's individual mandate is constitutional.

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