Vote expected today on health care repeal
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Katrina Sainovich, 22, from Industry, a recent Duquesne University graduate, shakes the hand of Jim Ferruchie, deputy district director for U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire.
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WASHINGTON -- The never-ending debate over the massive new health care law officially resumed on the U.S. House floor Tuesday, ahead of today's scheduled vote on a repeal of the bill.
As symbolic as the Republican-led vote -- which stands no chance in the Senate -- is the Democrats' aggressive response, which will do little to stem the lopsided House tally in favor of repeal.
But in renewing the clash concerning how best to deal with the nation's spiking medical costs and legions of uninsured, both sides are playing to a public that remains deeply divided about the new law. A slew of polling data released in the past few days show respondents mixed about whether to keep, expand, tinker with or repeal the law -- with results highly dependent on the wording of the question.
Republicans, staging the vote as one of their first actions since taking control of the House this month, are keeping a central campaign promise and registering their distaste for the law. Central elements such as the mandate that everyone purchase health insurance and subsidies to lower- and middle-income people to buy it strike conservatives as an invasion of freedom and an untenable new entitlement.
"The underlying sense of the Obamacare bill is one that Washington knows best," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., told reporters Tuesday.
The GOP accuses Democrats of trickery in concocting the bill -- for example, it starts collecting revenue years before funding subsidies -- so the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office would declare it a money-saver.
"When you strip out all the budget gimmicks and the double-counting, Obamacare is a budget buster," Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the Budget Committee chairman, said during floor debate Tuesday.
Democrats in the House, Senate and White House have responded with a vigorous defense of the bill, which they have long argued will become more popular the more people learn about it.
Some of the more popular provisions were front-loaded, such as additional prescription drug benefits for seniors to close the so-called "doughnut hole," and Democrats repeatedly have emphasized them during the anti-repeal campaign.
On Tuesday, the White House staged a conference call for reporters with Small Business Administration head Karen Mills, who touted rising numbers of small businesses offering health coverage to their employees thanks to a new tax credit.
First Published January 19, 2011 12:00 am
