GOP Plotting to Undercut Health Care Reform

The ink has dried on President Obama’s much ballyhooed health care reform bill—that’s “Obamacare” for all the haters—but according to select scheming members of the GOP, the fight might not be over yet on this one.  —KA

AP via Google News:

If you thought passing the health care overhaul was messy, wait until Republicans try to repeal it if they regain power this fall.

It could come down to who blinks first, with some Republicans raising the prospect of a government shutdown.

Even if Republicans succeed beyond any current predictions and capture both the Senate and the House, they wouldn’t have enough GOP votes to overcome President Barack Obama’s veto.

But Republicans could still fall back on the congressional power of the purse, denying the administration billions of dollars to carry out the most far-reaching social legislation since Medicare and Medicaid.

“The endgame is a fight over funding,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

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White House / Pete Souza

Ready for another round?: President Barack Obama pumps his fists while talking with (from left) Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the Office of Health Reform, Peter Orszag, director of Office of Management and Budget, Phil Schiliro, assistant to the president for legislative affairs, and Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, in the Outer Oval Office on July 13.