GOP Gears Up to Take Down Health Care Reform

Emboldened by their big wins in last fall’s midterm elections, Republican members of Congress are sharpening their battle axes with the aim of hacking away at the health care reform legislation that President Obama and the Democrats took such great pains to pass while they commanded the majority in both houses. The GOP may not succeed in repealing the bill, but they can still hit it where it hurts the most: on the monetary level.  —KA

Reuters via Google News:

The reforms, passed early last year as the legislative high point of Obama’s first two years, were aimed at addressing the huge cost of U.S. healthcare and eventually extending health insurance to all Americans.

But Republicans, portraying them as a costly extension of government control over people’s lives, have vowed to reverse them and set a House vote on their repeal for January 12.

While such a drastic move faces a block in the Senate, it will give a stark signal of their intentions and foreshadow a dogged campaign to cut off funding for the many changes due in coming years.

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White House / Pete Souza

President Barack Obama pumps his fists while talking with senior staff in the Outer Oval Office in July 2009. From left are Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the Office of Health Reform; Peter Orszag, former director of the Office of Management and Budget; Phil Schiliro, assistant to the president for legislative affairs; and Larry Summers, former director of the National Economic Council.