The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a budget resolution this afternoon that would start the process for repealing President Obama’s signature health care law.
The resolution, while solely a procedural step, still constitutes the first major move Republicans have taken toward repealing Obamacare. It cleared the Senate in the wee hours of Thursday morning, after Democrats fought to rewrite it during seven hours of voting.
In short, the resolution instructs Congress to begin drafting a budget aimed at defunding parts of the law.
Speaker Paul Ryan has emphasized that the House would move any legislation through the committee process. “We are not going to swap one 2,700-page monstrosity for another … we are going to do this the right way. We are going to do this the way it was designed through the congressional committee system,” he told reporters.
Next Steps
Democrats say they will bring Americans whose lives have been positively affected by the law to these hearings. Several members are holding rallies in their districts this weekend to tout the benefits of the law.
Democrats will also make the argument that Republicans cannot realistically “repeal” parts of the law, including popular provisions like protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
“Here is the problem that they have,” Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said during a press conference with Democratic House members. “All of the parts are like a puzzle that was carefully crafted and put together and you take a piece out and it no longer works. And that is what they are coming to realize. They have had six years to come up with something and they have come up with exactly nothing."
To date, Ryan and his office remain unwilling to talk policy details of a Republican replacement health care law. Ryan says proposals and legislative strategy will be discussed at the retreat for Republican lawmakers later this month. The Republican leadership has acknowledged that it runs the risk of more scrutiny as it drags its feet on an Obamacare alternative.
The Trump-factor
President-elect Donald Trump promised this week that "repeal and replace" would be accomplished on “the same day or the same week, but probably, the same day."
"Could be the same hour," he said at his Wednesday news conference.
Ryan, who reportedly speaks regularly with the Trump administration, said he had the same goal.
“We are working together on this,” Ryan told reporters this week. “We are in complete sync. We want to make sure we move these things concurrently.”
New bills to “replace” parts of Obamacare will likely require the usual 60 votes in the Senate, including a few votes from defiant Democrats.
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2jfdr0L
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