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Cleveland Daily Banner—Wednesday, January 6, 2016—5
House votes to send health law repeal to Obama for first time
AP Photo
ReP. louise slAughteR,
D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the
House Rules Committee, voices
her objections as the GOP-led
panel prepares legislation that
would repeal President Barack
Oabma’s health care law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After
dozens of failed attempts to undo
President Barack Obama’s
health care law, the GOP-led
Congress will finally put a bill on
the president’s desk striking at
the heart of his signature legislative achievement.
Obama will veto the bill, and
so the ultimate outcome will be
the same as the many previous
GOP attempts to repeal
“Obamacare.” But Wednesday’s
vote in the House will mark the
first time such a bill makes it all
the way to the White House.
Unlike past efforts that were
blocked by Senate Democrats,
this time the legislation was written under special rules protecting it from a Democratic filibuster. It passed the Senate late
last year, and so Wednesday’s
House vote will send it straight to
Obama.
House GOP leaders, opening
their 2016 legislative session,
said Wednesday’s vote and
Obama’s subsequent veto will lay
bare a stark choice between the
parties in a presidential election
year. The legislation also cuts
federal funding for Planned
Parenthood.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has
decried the legislation while leading GOP candidates applaud it.
“It’s up to the president to
decide if he wants to side with
the people whose health care
costs have skyrocketed out of
control, or the abortion industrial complex whose profits have
skyrocketed out of control,” said
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
“Congress is holding President
Obama accountable.”
Democrats denounced the vote
as a waste of time aimed at placating GOP base voters riled up
by Donald Trump and the unruly
Republican presidential race.
“It’s the 62nd vote on repealing
the Affordable Care Act. It has as
much chance as the previous
ones
did,”
said
House
Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of
Maryland. He said that
Republicans “don’t have an alternative, and the reaction of the
American public if they lost the
benefits and protections of the
Affordable Care Act would be
very upset.”
Indeed despite numerous
promises to “repeal and replace”
the health care law since its
enactment nearly six years ago,
Republicans have never coalesced around an alternative.
Ryan has promised that will
change this year.
The bill being voted on
Wednesday would dismantle the
health law’s key pillars, including requirements that most people obtain coverage and larger
employers offer it to workers.
It would eliminate the expansion of Medicaid coverage to additional lower-income people and
the government’s subsidies for
many who buy policies on newly
created insurance marketplaces.
And it would end taxes the law
imposed to cover its costs.
The bill would also terminate
the roughly $450 million yearly in
federal dollars that go to Planned
Parenthood, about a third of its
budget. A perennial target of conservatives, the group came under
intensified GOP pressure last
year over providing fetal tissue for
research.
“It is appalling that in their
first week back in session the top
priority for Republican leaders in
the House is rolling back
women’s access to preventive
health care,” said Dawn
Laguens, vice president of the
Planned Parenthood Action
Fund.
GOP leaders hope to schedule
a veto override vote to coincide
with the Jan. 22 March for Life in
Washington, the annual gathering of anti-abortion activists on
the anniversary of the 1973
AP Photo
Supreme Court decision that
ReP. Rob WoodAll, R-Ga.,
legalized abortion. However offers his criticisms of the
Republicans do not command
Affordable Care Act as the House
enough votes to override the
Rules Committee prepares legispresident’s veto.
‘It gets me mad’ — Obama acts alone on gun control
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tears
streaking his cheeks, President
Barack Obama launched a finalyear push Tuesday to tighten sales
of firearms in the U.S., using his
presidential powers in the absence
of tougher gun restrictions that
Congress has refused to pass.
The president struck a combative tone as he came out with plans
for expanded background checks
and other modest measures that
have drawn consternation from
gun rights groups, which Obama
accused of making Congress their
hostage. Palpable, too, was
Obama’s extreme frustration at
having made such little progress
on gun control since the killing of
20 first-graders in Connecticut
confronted the nation more than
three years ago.
“First-graders,” Obama said
woefully, resting his chin on his
hand and wiping away tears as he
recalled the 2012 massacre at
Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“Every time I think about those
kids, it gets me mad.”
Obama’s 10-point plan to keep
guns from those who shouldn’t
have them marked a concession by
the president: He’ll leave office
without securing the new gun control laws he’s repeatedly and desperately implored Congress to
pass.
Alt