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Political Hotsheet
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com. You can read more of her posts here. Follow Hotsheet on Facebook and Twitter. © 2011 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
GOP Comes Back Swinging on Health Care Repeal
Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET with news of scheduled health care repeal vote.
Republicans plan to take over the House this week with a symbolic flourish meant to give a nod of recognition to the Tea Party: They'll read the Constitution aloud. They're promising to follow up with another act that could prove just as symbolic: a vote to repeal health care reform.
GOP Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.), the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" yesterday that the House will vote to repeal President Obama's key legislative accomplishment before he delivers his State of the Union address at the end of this month. What's more, he promised that they'll garner enough votes to overcome a presidential veto -- a tall order under any circumstances.
"We have 242 Republicans. There will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us," Upton said. "Remember when [Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi] said we want to pass this thing because then we'll learn what's in it? Well, now the American public does know what is in it. Unpopularity numbers are as high as 60 percent across the country. I don't think we're going to be that far off from having the votes to actually override a veto."
The promise of repealing the president's comprehensive health care overhaul has become an integral part of stump speeches to conservative audiences, but its chances of success are slim. It would take two-thirds majority in the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto. Regardless of what happens in the House, it's highly unlikely Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would bring a repeal measure up for a vote in the Senate.
Upton, however, was optimistic Republicans can pressure Democrats to consider a repeal. "If we pass this bill with a sizable vote, and I think that we will, it will put enormous pressure on the Senate to do perhaps the same thing," he said.
If that effort fails, Upton said Republicans would attack the bill "piece by piece." As an example of how such an attack would work, he pointed to the bipartisan support to repeal a provision of the health care law that requires more paperwork from some businesses. However, the House failed to pass a repeal of that specific measure last year, suggesting that a piecemeal effort to dismantle the bill could be challenging.
Repealing parts of the legislation, however, is just one part of the GOP's multi-pronged strategy to dismantle health care reform, which also includes conducting congressional hearings to scrutinize the bill, relying on court decisions to pull it apart, and withholding funding for the new measures.
Yet while efforts to dismantle health care reform may please the conservative base, Republicans run the risk of ignoring the more pressing issue of the economy -- a mistake Democrats made when they fought to enact the new laws.
"For Republicans, the key is to link anything they do to health care to the economy," CBS News political analyst John Dickerson said on CBS' "The Early Show." "That is still the central issue, and Republicans have to focus anything they want to do on health care and say, 'This is how this hurts the economy and that's why we're trying to get rid of it.'"
The New York Times reports that Democrats will be more eager to defend the legislation this year than they were during last year's midterm elections. They may have more support from Mr. Obama, who plans to campaign for re-election on the new laws.
It's also worth considering that public opinion on the law is likely to keep changing. So far, only some of the reforms have been enacted. Starting just this month, for instance, senior citizens will start receiving help from the government to cover the cost of the gap in Medicare coverage often referred to as the "donut hole." The major part of the reform law -- the requirement for all Americans to have health care -- doesn't even go into effect until 2014.
UPDATE: The House will vote to repeal health care bill on Jan. 12, Republicans announced today.
The Rules Committee will meet on Thursday and the rule to consider repeal of the health care law will be brought to the House floor on Friday. Then, the repeal will go before the full House on Wednesday, Jan. 12.
In order to comply with the GOP's new transparency rules, the repeal legislation will be available online tonight here.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats today sent a letter to incoming House Speaker John Boehner, urging him to not repeal the law.
"If House Republicans move forward with a repeal of the health care law that threatens consumer benefits like the 'donut hole' fix, we will block it in the Senate," the letter said. "This proposal deserves a chance to work. It is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal health care."
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Although it is true that cutting back on administration costs would save money, I guarantee patients, Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies would not be happy. This would result in lower standard of care to those in need. I have worked in the health field and (if I could) I would help anyone that needed it....even for free. The problem I have witnessed unfortunately, Is the more we do for free, the more we are expected to do. We receive very little appreciation and are treated as if it is a given not a gift.
I'm not sure what the perfect answer is. I do know that universal health care is not the answer. Even if we did go that direction.....Do you think our elite or our politicians would participate equally and have universal health care?? I think not.
As for repealing health care.... This new system does not save the money that a complete overhaul would save in administrative costs. We are the ONLY developed nation without universal healthcare and THAT is the real crime.
For the Republicans to read the Constitution out loud, perhaps then they will realize that illegal searches and seizures are forbidden by the document. Barring that, there is no real application for healthcare, since healthcare during the early years of our nation revolved around homepathic cures that included no knowledge of how biology works. These revelations came in the post World Wars era. Our Declaration of Independence states that all men are endowed by their maker with inalienable rights, including LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...LIFE being the key word, one that other nations take to mean HEALTH.
required by the HCR bill. So my question is simply this....Just who is this HCR bill going to insure and who is going to get it for free? We have Medicare today. This originally was meant for those that worked and invested money out of their paychecks for insurance needed after retirement. The Government decided that this fund should also be used for those that are deemed disabled. This means that those that may have never worked or worked very little, can qualify for monthly funds paid for by the Medicare program. Now I am not a math professional, however it doesn't take one to realize that if you spend money on those that did not contribute, eventually that money will run out. Then we also have Medicaid. This was set up to pay for those without jobs and who need health care. This fund is paid for by anyone who works. Not going into details, but we all know the fraud that exists when dealing with the Medicaid program. There are plenty of ways to cut back and shorten the burden that is placed on the working middle class. Commonsense tells you that a Medicare fund cannot afford to pay for all the others that do not contribute. Eventually....The money runs out. As far as Government run Insurance, That is exactly what Medicare, Medicaid, and va insurance is. Ask anyone on these programs and they will tell you that it is the Government that decides what medical care you may be allowed and what medicine they will pay for. So when looking at the big picture this is what I see. I see Government run Insurance already in existence. I see programs already in place that can no longer support the amount of recipients, of said programs. So, the bottom line is this...The middle working class taxpayers, (Many who have employee implemented insurance) being put in a spot where the quality of their benefits will diminish, so that we may pay for the "lack of government health care spending" in the past. Instead of punishing those that have worked and contributed, and those that are today still working and contributing.....The government should put deeper controls over those receiving the benefits for free. There are many ways to change the cost of our current system...(Making it beneficial to those in need, while respecting those that contribute.)Beside setting stricter laws that discourage illegitimate children, unwed mothers, (Unearned income credit) irresponsible "Babies daddies," we should not allow the Government to set stricter rule on those that work and pay already today for their health care. The first thing Congress should do is to show proof of intention. Intention to improve the system. There is only one way to show the tax payers this intent. Government employees and law makers should be treated as equal to all employees that have money taxed out of their paychecks. Show the citizens that work long hard days in the hope that they can afford every day life, that government is NOT above all other citizen's. Those that are not effected by HCR personally, should not be allowed to make the rules and laws for all others. (All others that pay into the health care fund already.....today.) Scrap HCR1070. Start over. This time, the hard working taxpayers should be the number one priority. Those that only use the system, should have stricter rules, (such as one mistake illegitimate child and the "babies daddies" should have to help pay back the rest of us in the country by donating time, or serving in the Military.) If you make them responsible for their actions, I promise you....They will think twice about the consequences. No matter what.... Today's working citizens...CANNOT afford to pay for those that do not.
I pray that you never need any government assistance, or you will find it is lacking in most ways here in the U.S.
Okay Trout, I am off to a business meeting. I might be back in an hour.
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Funniest comment of the day...... Mort working. If his 9 employees spent as much time blogging as he does, he'd be outof business.
What a psuedo-Constitutional bum.
It would be so nice to have discussions that relate to the article, not just the back and forth of some people here that seem to live to argue with each other.
Free speech is fine, but we do have some guidelines to follow here. Capeche... you know who?
The Dems will get a chance to explain the Patients Protection and Affordable Care Act while not being "under the gun" trying to get it passed.
It is so obvious just from reading comments on boards like this one -- a whole lot of Americans have NO IDEA what is in the legislation. Having an open debate in the House can only benefit the people that DO understand the law. That would be the Democrats.
Besides, people care more about housing, jobs and other economic issues that are far more immediate -- spending time trying to go backwards isn't a smart move in today's fast moving, twenty-four news cycle media heavy world.
The GOP won the House on promises to do things that they can not do, I don't think it'll end up being a great two years for them.
But who knows -- maybe all Americans will decide that all we need is no taxes or government of any kind .... hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... yeah right! (But, no government does mean NO GOP as well as no Dems ....!)
Why? The rich would have no way to consume-without-loopholes.
I think the government does work --- in many ways, but being that it is representative government and it represents imperfect people... well, of course it can not possibly be perfect.
My personal biggest beef is the bureaucracy -- and THAT is not a liberal/Dem or a conservative/GOP construct ... it's more like a cancer that just grows no matter who has the majorities.
Did you know that people from the Reagan administration still have jobs in the "lower level" bureaucratic halls of the USA?
The country, then is not run by anyone we elect, but by the secretary that knows how to load the paper.... ha!
I say let the states buy health care systems across "national" lines. The sates that want a phony baloney market can have their phony baloney market. The states that want single payer system can go single payer by having countries with a single payer system set it up and run it for them. 23 months to a new congress.
What to do when you travel and get sick in another state? Or move? No...
Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death.
OK! I'm here drawing attension to the dangers of Dihydrogen monoxide in a serious way!
Hint* Dihydrogen monoxide is water
Now, do you really think I'm serious!!
=====
Not at all.
I think you are just some poor fellow with a huge ego that will go to great lengths to avoid saying he got caught up "saying anything" to try to validate his previous baseless posts. It is hard to take people like you serious. Lesson learned.
BTW, you would've been better off just cutting your loses then going with this meaningless post. Perhaps you didn't notice the smell of deperation something like this would give off. I'm sure it played better in your mind, if that matters.
Your idea that people will game the system INSTEAD of care for the best interests of their families was NOT any form of acceptable satire, in my opinion.
I thought the comment was rank. And, I enjoy satire.
I agree you should have cut your losses and just let it go.... and, this comment is exactly the point (again, in my opinion): "I'm sure it played better in your mind, if that matters".