- A bill repealing Obama's health care reform has cleared a key hurdle in the House
- The bill will probably face a final House vote next Wednesday
- Democrats cite a CBO analysis saying the repeal would add $230 billion to the federal debt
- The bill is believed to have little chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate
Washington (CNN) -- Legislation repealing President Obama's health care overhaul cleared a key procedural hurdle in the House of Representatives on Friday, advancing a top priority of the new Republican congressional majority.
The sharply partisan 236-181 vote probably will set up a final House vote to undo the measure next Wednesday.
Almost every Republican voted to advance the measure; nearly every Democrat opposed it.
While a successful repeal vote would fulfill a GOP campaign promise, the measure is considered to have virtually no chance of surviving either the Democratic-controlled Senate or a promised presidential veto.
"We will vote to repeal Obamacare again and again until we consign their government takeover to the ash heap of history where it belongs," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Indiana. "Welcome to the 112th Congress. American people -- this is your week."
"We are setting in motion an effort to repeal President Obama's job killing bill ... and replace it with real solutions," said California GOP Rep. David Dreier, the chairman of the House Rules Committee. "We want to start with a clean slate."
Democrats blasted the new Republican majority for pushing for a final vote on the measure without allowing consideration of any amendments, which they characterized as a violation of the GOP pledge for a more open legislative process.
Democrats also seized on Thursday's release of an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which concluded that a repeal of the health care overhaul will add $230 billion to the federal debt over the next decade.
Republicans have exempted a repeal of the health care law from new rules prohibiting legislation from adding to the debt. At the same time, they have questioned the CBO analysis, asserting that it was based on unrealistic economic and fiscal assumptions originally provided by Democrats.
"The numbers don't lie," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-New York. "Republicans have long valued the work" of the CBO. But now that they don't like its estimates, "they have taken to questioning (its) work."
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, blasted Republicans for "reopening an old ideological battle" and stripping people of new benefits provided by the reform, such as a ban on annual and lifetime benefit caps.
"We should be focusing on jobs and the economy," he declared.
"The Republican Party has become little more than an arm of the insurance monopolies," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.
Fifty-four percent of Americans oppose the new health care law, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released December 27. Forty-three percent support the measure.
Only 37%, however, oppose the law because they believe it is too liberal. More than six in 10 Americans support specific provisions in the measure preventing insurance companies from dropping coverage for seriously ill people or denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Six in 10 Americans oppose the law's requirement for all Americans to obtain health care coverage, according to the survey.
No comments:
Post a Comment