The Hill News

Republicans sought to outflank each other Wednesday with the most novel idea to undo President Obama's healthcare reform law, which turns one year old today.

Potential GOP presidential candidates each offered their own condemnation of "ObamaCare" to mark its one year anniversary, and proposed their favorite way to undo it.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he would issue an executive order on day one, if he were president, allowing waivers from the reform law for all 50 states.

"If I were president, on Day One I would issue an executive order paving the way for Obamacare waivers to all 50 states," Romney wrote in a blog post for National Review Online. "The executive order would direct the Secre! tary of Health and Human Services and all relevant federal officials to return the maximum possible authority to the states to innovate and design health-care solutions that work best for them."

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that if courts don't do away with Obama's reforms, Pawlenty would immediately seek the repeal of healthcare reform if he's elected president.

"One year ago today, President Obama signed into law the federal government takeover of healthcare, one of the most flawed and misguided laws in modern history," Pawlenty said in a statement, noting his own role in signing onto a court challenge of the law.

"If courts do not do so first, as president, I would support the immediate repeal of Obamacare and replace it with market-based health care reforms," Pawlenty added.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, urged congressional Republicans to attach a version of the repeal bill they passed earlier this yea! r to legislation authorizing an increase in the debt ceiling. !
"House Republicans have the votes to put it in the debt ceiling. They should do it very early. And then they should go to the country and focus attention on the Democrats in the Senate," Gingrich said Tuesday evening on conservative talk radio.

Many of the Republicans now considering running for president have spent the better part of the past year castigating the law they ridicule as "ObamaCare." But the law's one year anniversary is a particular inflection point that presents the GOP contenders with an opportunity to prove their bona fides with conservative primary voters.

Heaping scorn on healthcare reform is particularly important for Romney, who's faced criticism from conservatives for the similarities between the healthcare plan he! implemented as governor and Obama's eventual plan. (Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) suggested last week that Romney would have to disavow it to win DeMint's endorsement.)

Romney's statement made no explicit mention of the Massachusetts reforms, but asserted different states' rights to experiment with different healthcare plans -- a subtle defense of Romney's own reforms.

Other Republicans are likely to weigh in against Obama's plan on Wednesday, too. Statements are expected from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and other 2012 contenders, like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour or Sarah Palin, may weigh in, too.