By Susan Ferrechio - washingtonexaminer.com
The House is set to begin debate Friday on a bill to repeal the nations health care reform law as the new Republican majority moves to fulfill a campaign pledge that helped them sweep dozens of Democrats out of office.
With a 24-seat Republican majority the bill to repeal the law is expected to pass easily though the final vote wont come until next week because of a new House rule requiring legislation to be posted online before a vote.
Democrats arent sitting idly by watching their signature achievement repealed by House Republicans.
Democrats still control the Senate and can block the repeal legislation there. Armed with new Congressional Budget Office calculations showing that a repeal of the health care reforms would add $230 billion to the deficit by 2021 they also are making a concerted effort to paint House Republican as fiscally reckless.
The estimate CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said was based on his conclusion that the health care law will shrink the deficit eventually saving $145 billion. That money and other savings built into the bill would be lost if it is repealed.
Not only would repeal of health care reform add to our deficit it would dump more than 30 million Americans from coverage who will be protected by our new health care reform act Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin D-Ill. told reporters Thursday.
Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif. joined the attack.
Instead of joining Democrats in our efforts for job creation Republicans are planning to put insurance companies back in charge by repealing patients rights she said.
The CBO priced the health care reforms at $940 billion when Congress passed the measure in March 2010 but said the law would eventually save enough money to reduce the deficit.
Republicans argued Elmendorfs claim that repeal would add to the deficit was based on a dubious plan to slash Medicare spending by nearly $500 billion. The CBO projections also excluded other costs including planned pay increases for doctors treating Medicare patients the GOP said.
I dont think anybody in this town believes that repealing Obamacare is going to increase the deficit House Speaker John Boehner R-Ohio said Thursday.
The CBO announcement did little to sway the new class of Republican freshmen in the House most of whom pledged during the campaign to both cut the deficit and repeal health care reform.
Garbage in garbage out freshman Rep. Steven Palazzo R-Miss. said of the CBOs latest estimate. They want to change the argument that we had last year that the health care law is going to increase the deficit $1.1 trillion over 10 years. We have to repeal it.
Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin who served under President George W. Bush told The Washington Examiner he believes the health care law will increase the deficit $500 billion to $600 billion over the next decade and that Elmendorf had no choice but to project savings based on faulty information provided by Democrats.
You get used in the political process all the time Holtz-Eakin said of the CBO directors role. There is no question Democrats have used the CBO to push a story line that is factually false.
