Romney, GOP leaders pledge to repeal health care law

— -- In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, Republicans had one message: November has never been more important.

Mitt Romney, Republican officials and strategists said the ruling only raised the stakes for the 2012 election and would provide the fuel needed to get their base to the polls.

"What the court did not do on it's last day in session I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States," the presumptive GOP nominee said in a four-minute statement at a building across from the U.S. Capitol. "I will act to repeal Obamacare."

Romney did not criticize the court and instead pointed to the fact that the court did not state that "Obamacare was good law or that it's good policy."

"This is a time of choice for the American people, our mission is clear," Romney said. "If we want to get rid of Obamacare we're going to have to replace President Obama."

Romney left the podium without elaborating on specifically what would replace the law if it were repealed and took no questions.

The campaign committees echoed Romney's remarks and issued press releases warning the faithful that the November elections have never mattered more.

"Today's Supreme Court decision sets the stakes for the November election," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "Now, the only way to save the country from Obamacare's budget-busting government takeover of health care is to elect a new president."

Republican strategists said the Supreme Court decision made sure the GOP's conservative base would be out in full force.

"It's obviously a big policy win in terms of the Affordable Care Act," said Phil Musser, who served as campaign manager for former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign. "But this will mobilize the hell out of conservatives in the fall."

The ruling did nothing to discourage Republican lawmakers who immediately pledged to only increase their efforts to repeal the legislation.

Within an hour of the decision, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., announced the House would vote on a repeal of the law July 11.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor that the ruling may have settled the constitutional question about the law, but the Republican efforts to push a repeal are just beginning.

"There is only one way to truly fix Obamacare, only one way, and that is a full repeal," said McConnell, R-Ky.

Doug Holtz Eakin, a Republican economist and former senior policy adviser for Sen. John McCain's 2008 campaign, said the Republicans should use the promise of repeal to campaign this fall but the message should be "framed very carefully" in terms of the law's impact on jobs and the economy.