Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
Well, Republicans kept one of their campaign promises, as the House voted to repeal Obamacare. The repeal bill is less likely to get through the Senate where Democrats still hold a reduce majority, though there is hope as some Senate Dems run scared of their constituents who overwhelmingly want the Health Care takeover repealed. In any event, it is very unlikely that President Obama will sign any repeal bill that may reach his desk.
Still it's a sign of times to come. 2/3 of the Senate has yet to face election after Democrats shoved Obamacare down the throats of huge majorities of their constituents who didn't want it... as does Obama himself.
The House currently has 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats. Even if every Republican voted to repeal, it is clear that some Democrats did so too.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/house/138897-house-votes-to-repeal-healthcare-law
House repeals healthcare law
By Russell Berman - 01/19/11 05:54 PM ET
The House voted on Wednesday to repeal the sweeping healthcare law enacted last year, as Republicans made good on a central campaign pledge and laid down the first major policy marker of their new majority.
The vote was 245-189.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the healthcare law on the books would increase spending, raise taxes and eliminate jobs.
“Repeal means paving the way for better solutions that will lower the costs without destroying jobs or bankrupting our government," Boehner said in remarks on the floor before the vote.
“Let’s stop payment on this check before it can destroy more jobs or put us into a deeper hole.”
The vote to roll back the president’s signature domestic achievement of the 111th Congress just 10 months after its passage underscores the deep divisions that still surround the new law. But whether House action will signal the beginning of a rapid dismantling of the healthcare overhaul or serve merely as a historical footnote remains to be seen.
Democratic leaders in the Senate have vowed to shelve the repeal bill, and Obama has said he would veto repeal if it ever reached his desk.
(snip)
On the House floor, however, rank-and-file members occasionally broke with the restrained and civil tone. On Tuesday night, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.) compared Republican claims about the healthcare reform law to lies promulgated by the Nazis that led to the Holocaust.
"They don't like the truth, so they summarily dismiss it," said Cohen, who is Jewish. "They say it's a government takeover of healthcare. A big lie, just like [Nazi propaganda minister Joseph] Goebbels. You say it enough and you repeat the lie, repeat the lie, repeat the lie until eventually people believe it. Like blood libel, that's the same kind of thing.
"The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it, and you have the Holocaust," he added. "You tell a lie over and over again."
Party leaders did not comment on Cohen’s remarks, but they came hours after the second-ranking House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), complained that too much of the public debate “is about incitement rather than informing.”
“It's about making people angry [and] disrespecting the other point of view or the other side," Hoyer added. "We have a responsibility to try to focus debate ... in a way that does not incite, but that informs."
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a conservative firebrand, called the healthcare law “the crown jewel of socialism.”
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
Still it's a sign of times to come. 2/3 of the Senate has yet to face election after Democrats shoved Obamacare down the throats of huge majorities of their constituents who didn't want it... as does Obama himself.
The House currently has 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats. Even if every Republican voted to repeal, it is clear that some Democrats did so too.
-------------------------------------------------
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/138897-house-votes-to-repeal-healthcare-law
House repeals healthcare law
By Russell Berman - 01/19/11 05:54 PM ET
The House voted on Wednesday to repeal the sweeping healthcare law enacted last year, as Republicans made good on a central campaign pledge and laid down the first major policy marker of their new majority.
The vote was 245-189.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the healthcare law on the books would increase spending, raise taxes and eliminate jobs.
“Repeal means paving the way for better solutions that will lower the costs without destroying jobs or bankrupting our government," Boehner said in remarks on the floor before the vote.
“Let’s stop payment on this check before it can destroy more jobs or put us into a deeper hole.”
The vote to roll back the president’s signature domestic achievement of the 111th Congress just 10 months after its passage underscores the deep divisions that still surround the new law. But whether House action will signal the beginning of a rapid dismantling of the healthcare overhaul or serve merely as a historical footnote remains to be seen.
Democratic leaders in the Senate have vowed to shelve the repeal bill, and Obama has said he would veto repeal if it ever reached his desk.
(snip)
On the House floor, however, rank-and-file members occasionally broke with the restrained and civil tone. On Tuesday night, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.) compared Republican claims about the healthcare reform law to lies promulgated by the Nazis that led to the Holocaust.
"They don't like the truth, so they summarily dismiss it," said Cohen, who is Jewish. "They say it's a government takeover of healthcare. A big lie, just like [Nazi propaganda minister Joseph] Goebbels. You say it enough and you repeat the lie, repeat the lie, repeat the lie until eventually people believe it. Like blood libel, that's the same kind of thing.
"The Germans said enough about the Jews and people believed it, and you have the Holocaust," he added. "You tell a lie over and over again."
Party leaders did not comment on Cohen’s remarks, but they came hours after the second-ranking House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), complained that too much of the public debate “is about incitement rather than informing.”
“It's about making people angry [and] disrespecting the other point of view or the other side," Hoyer added. "We have a responsibility to try to focus debate ... in a way that does not incite, but that informs."
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a conservative firebrand, called the healthcare law “the crown jewel of socialism.”
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)