Health Reform Repeal Votes Costing Taxpayers Millions
WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) – The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has voted 33 times to repeal, defund, or scale back the Affordable Care Act. The symbolic votes haven't come without a cost for taxpayers.
According to CBS News, the House has spent at least 80 hours or two full work weeks voting to repeal the law. The efforts have been supported en masse by the South Florida Republican delegation in Congress.
The Congressional Research Service stated that a work week in the House costs $24 million per week, which means the two weeks spent fruitlessly trying to repeal the ACA has cost taxpayers approximately $48 million.
The House voted again Wednesday to repeal the act, which was the 33rd such vote. The measure was passed by the Republican majority House, but was dead on arrival in the Democratically-controlled Senate and would not be signed by President Obama if it ever made it to his desk.
The constant votes on the matter painted the GOP into a difficult position. On the one hand, the party wants to excite its base with the votes. On the other hand, the constant focus on trying to rewrite history have left the GOP open to questions on how much time they've spent trying to work on the economy.
Recent polls have seen support for the law increase after the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional. One poll also found that a majority of Americans don't want to go through the health care debate again and want the House to instead focus on other issues.
All South Florida Republicans voted to repeal the law in the 33rd vote Wednesday. All South Florida Democrats voted against the repeal.
It's not the first time questions have been raised over Congressional expenditures when Democrats were in charge, including numerous investigations of the Bush administration. The Republican Party was also criticized for spending more than $50 million investigating President Bill Clinton.