This morning, Rep. Bill Cassidy gave the Weekly Republican Address. It’s the first time someone from Louisiana has given that address since Sen. David Vitter gave it on May 24, 2010.

The topic of the speech? As you might expect given the speaker and the timing (Cassidy is a medical doctor, and next week the Supreme Court will rule on its constitutionality), Obamacare.

There is a rumor going around within GOP circles in D.C. that the Obamacare decision will come down on Monday and that the entire law will be found unconstitutional. Rumors in Washington aren’t any better than conventional wisdom in Washington, so believe this one at your own risk – but should it come to pass it would not be a surprise. After all, this week House Speaker John Boehner put out a communique to his membership advising them against overt jubilation should the Supreme Court strike the health care law down.

In any event, here’s the YouTube of Cassidy’s address…

And here’s a transcript…

“Hello, I’m Bill Cassidy, a doctor and United States Congressman from the State of Louisiana.

“As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on the constitutionality of the president’s health care law, a law which continues to hurt job creation and damage our economy. Not only is President Obama’s health care law not working – it makes things worse by driving up health care costs, making it harder for small businesses to hire workers. The only way to change this is by repealing ObamaCare entirely.

“So, unless the Court throws out the entire law, we should repeal what is left and implement common-sense, step-by-step reforms that protect Americans’ access to the care they need, from the doctor they choose, at the lowest cost.

“In this tough economy, the top health care concern of families and small businesses is out-of-control costs. Health care coverage has become too expensive for too many people. Two years ago, Washington Democrats pushed through ObamaCare and its 2,700 pages with promises that it would fix all this. It did not have popular support. It did not have bipartisan support. But its authors insisted that ObamaCare would make health care more affordable, and of course Americans hoped that would be true.

“Instead, ObamaCare has turned out to be the wrong medicine for out-of-control health care costs. The law, as an example, is going to cost nearly twice as much as we were told, people are already paying more for their health care than they were before, and because of health insurance expenses, employers are canceling plans to expand their businesses, which is to say they will not be hiring new workers. With costs going up and too much uncertainty, this two trillion dollar takeover will result in more people being pushed out of the plan they enjoy today.

“The Obama administration has tried all kinds of run-of-the-mill Washington tactics to distract from ObamaCare’s failures – issuing hundreds of waivers to selected businesses and unions and spending millions of taxpayer dollars on public relations campaigns.

“None of this has worked, and now the vast majority of Americans want the Supreme Court to overturn all or part of ObamaCare. If that happens, it’s important to know that Republicans will not repeat Democrats’ mistakes. We will not rush through a massive bill the American people don’t support or won’t even have time to read to figure out whether they do support it. And we won’t take our focus off jobs and the economy.

“I have practiced medicine for nearly three decades primarily treating the uninsured … I still see patients almost weekly. Good health care starts in a doctor’s office, not a Washington backroom. It’s now clear, if it wasn’t already, that containing costs step-by-step – not expanding government in one fell swoop – is the right approach to health care reform. Families should be able to make their own health care choices, visit the doctor of their choosing, and receive the health care they and their physician feel is best. That means implementing patient-centered solutions that lower costs and restore Americans’ freedoms over their health care decisions.

“Again, Republicans continue, as promised, to focus on helping small businesses create jobs. The most recent jobs report pegged unemployment at 8.2 percent – much higher than what White House officials said it would be by now with the ‘stimulus’ in effect. ObamaCare, with its fees, tax hikes, and costly mandates, makes this worse. We should seize this opportunity to protect jobs and work together on a step-by-step reform that does what ObamaCare did not do, which is to lower the cost of health care for families and small businesses. This is what Republicans hope to achieve, and we hope to have your support.

“Thank you for listening, and God bless the United States of America.”