Pressure on House to back bid to repeal health care law
WASHINGTON — The pressure is now on U.S. House Republicans to complete the first step toward repealing Obamacare after a razor-thin Senate vote showed the contentiousness surrounding efforts to undo President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement.
The House plans to vote as early as Friday on a budget resolution that would set the repeal effort in motion, but the timing could slip because of intra-party angst. Doubts were growing among both moderate and conservative Republicans about the wisdom of voting for repeal without laying out more details about the eventual replacement.
Senior House Deputy Whip Dennis Ross of Florida said Wednesday he’s been advised by a colleague that more Republican votes must be found to adopt the resolution, since all Democrats are expected to oppose it. Ross said GOP leaders are preparing for the possibility that the vote may have to be moved to Saturday to allow more time to assemble support.
Some House Freedom Caucus members are opposed to the current plan, while Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who co-chairs a group of moderate Republicans, said he has “serious reservations” at this point about voting for the budget.
The 51-48 Senate vote early Thursday fell almost entirely along party lines. Senate Republicans held together to defeat Democratic amendments aimed at defending popular portions of the Affordable Care Act, including expanded Medicaid and Medicare drug benefits and allowing kids to stay on their parents’ insurance until 26.
Republicans intend to come up with the repeal bill in the coming weeks, though they remain far apart over how it would work.
The budget blueprint lets Republicans repeal much of Obamacare without any votes from Democrats, because follow-on legislation wouldn’t be subject to filibusters.
GOP leaders initially discussed setting an Obamacare repeal sometime months or even years in the future, with a replacement to be enacted by that date. But a revolt by rankand-file members in both chambers, with apparent agreement from Presidentelect Donald Trump, has lawmakers looking for a near-simultaneous repeal and enactment of a new health-care law several weeks or months into the new administration.
The budget resolution sets a Jan. 27 target for writing the first Obamacare replacement bill. A group of five Republicans proposed changing that target to March 3, but they withdrew the amendment late Wednesday after GOP leaders reassured them that there was no practical difference because missing the deadline doesn’t carry a penalty.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said he voted against the budget resolution for an unrelated reason — it would allow the federal debt to increase by more than $9 trillion over the next decade. Republicans control the Senate 52-48, which meant that Republicans could afford only a single additional defection to advance the measure before Trump’s inauguration.
The “vote-a-rama” procedure for budget resolutions allows Democrats to force unlimited votes on amendments, which meant hours of votes before final approval of the measure. Democrats tried to use the amendments to demonstrate a split between where the country is on popular provisions and the Republican base.
“The Republicans cannot please their base and the broader public at the same time,” Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on the Senate floor. “From a policy perspective, they can’t repeal the law and keep in place the provisions that are overwhelmingly popular with a majority of Americans. That’s why they’re in such a pickle.”