US lawmakers debate on health care law
12 July 2012 1:25 AM GMT
US lawmakers began five contentious hours of debate over repealing the health care law, with Republicans insisting there is bipartisan support for wiping President Barack Obama's landmark reforms from the books.
Democrats have slammed the effort - the 31st vote to repeal part or all of the Affordable Care Act - as a political show, but acknowledged it's all but certain to pass the House of Representatives when it reaches the floor on Wednesday.
‘We're going to lose. Republicans are going to vote in lockstep,’ the number two House Democrat Steny Hoyer told reporters before lawmakers took to the floor to make their cases for or against the reforms that were signed into law in 2010 and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court late last month.
Hoyer also acknowledged there would be some Democratic defectors who will vote for repeal. ‘I think we'll lose some as we did before, not a lot,’ he said, referring to a vote in early 2011. The number could be higher on Wednesday, with some Democrats in heated battles for November re-election in swing states.
Republicans, however, are touting the defections as a sign of broader discontent with Obama's reforms.
‘There will be Democrats joining Republicans in the repeal,’ the top Republican vote-corraller in the House, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters. ‘Democrats are hearing back home this bill is hurting small businesses.’
Republicans say ‘Obamacare’ is placing unfair financial burdens on small companies whose costs they say are rising under the health care law, charges the White House and Democrats refute.
Democrats have slammed the effort - the 31st vote to repeal part or all of the Affordable Care Act - as a political show, but acknowledged it's all but certain to pass the House of Representatives when it reaches the floor on Wednesday.
‘We're going to lose. Republicans are going to vote in lockstep,’ the number two House Democrat Steny Hoyer told reporters before lawmakers took to the floor to make their cases for or against the reforms that were signed into law in 2010 and upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court late last month.
Hoyer also acknowledged there would be some Democratic defectors who will vote for repeal. ‘I think we'll lose some as we did before, not a lot,’ he said, referring to a vote in early 2011. The number could be higher on Wednesday, with some Democrats in heated battles for November re-election in swing states.
Republicans, however, are touting the defections as a sign of broader discontent with Obama's reforms.
‘There will be Democrats joining Republicans in the repeal,’ the top Republican vote-corraller in the House, Kevin McCarthy, told reporters. ‘Democrats are hearing back home this bill is hurting small businesses.’
Republicans say ‘Obamacare’ is placing unfair financial burdens on small companies whose costs they say are rising under the health care law, charges the White House and Democrats refute.
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