House Republicans passed a bill to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care plan Wednesday, taking their first major step toward rolling back the massive overhaul that has dominated the American political landscape for almost two years.
The vote was 245 to 189, and unanimous GOP opposition gave the vote the same partisan feel of the March vote to pass the law, underscoring once again the hardened political lines of the health care debate. Only three Democrats backed the repeal, a smaller number than Republicans had once predicted.
The bill will head next to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has promised to block it. If it did receive a vote, the repeal bill would be unlikely to draw support from even a majority of senators. Even so, House Republican leaders have challenged Reid to give the bill a vote since Democrats, who control the chamber, have little to fear.
Republicans rejected a procedural maneuver by the Democratic minority to make repeal ineffective unless a majority of the House and Senate withdraw from the federal health benefits program within 30 days after passage by each chamber.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the effort was “an attempt to derail an appeal of the Obamacare bill.”
House members flooded the floor throughout the day, delivering short but occasionally impassioned speeches that echoed their party’s talking points.
Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) called the law “a trillion-dollar tragedy.”
Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) described it as “job-killing” and “socialistic.”
Rep. Kevin Duncan (R-Texas) said “health care is too important to get it wrong, and Obamacare got it wrong.”
But Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) took the debate to a new level late Tuesday night, suggesting to an empty House floor that Republican rhetoric around health care reform is akin to Nazi propaganda that fed anti-Semitism during World War II.
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6 Responses
It’s totally symbolic. To be significant, it would need 2/3 of both houses, and they aren’t even close. This sort of parliamentary shenanigans is what cost the Democrats last election, and the Republicans in 2006.
It would be better to propose an alternative program that maximizes coverage, personal autonomy and minimizes costs.
Boruch h-shem!! I hope they’re successful….
I guess Rep Cohen didnt get the memo from Osama Obama that they had to be civil or was it that only those one the right had to be civil? Yeah, thats more like it.
Where is the “jewish” liberal g’shraiy about him using the N word. I’ll bet you dont hear a peep out of those loosers!
Thank you GOP your on the right track now defund it and repeal obama.
The nut case from Tenn. The congressman Steven Cohen comparing republicans to nazis how crazy liberals are, like charlie hall liberals are out of their mind.
smartcookie,
You are probably B”H in good health, have good insurance that you do not pay for or pay a fraction of the cost for. I need this new healthcare system and have already greatly benefited from it (health-wise, not money-wise) You won’t be so smart when the cookie crumbles.
5, YOU may need it but who said I have to pay for it. There is still a major fallacy that the socialists have left out and that is that ANYONE could walk into an ER to get service.
You also need to learn some English… Insurance is IN CASE something happens and not something that happened already. Your house cant burn down, then you run for retroactive insurance and expect to get it covered. You cant total your car and expect to get insurance the next day in order to cover your loss. To think like this is utterly ASININE!
Those things are called PREEXISTING CONDITIONS and you COULD get your free or almost free coverage by something called MEDICAID. And if you think its free you are a sadly mistaken liberal because NOTHING IS FREE BECAUSE SOMEONE IS PAYING FOR IT. You are paying for it too but you dont realize it.