Just to be clear, as we've written many times before, our problem with Obamacare is the individual mandate, which is blatantly unconstitutional, and the egregious giveaways to Big Pharma & Big Insurance that are built into the law. It's a bad fix.
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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Fulfilling a campaign pledge, House GOP members passed a bill Wednesday that would repeal President Barack Obama’s landmark health-care law, and sent the measure to an almost-certain death in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The vote was 245-189 and came just two weeks after Republicans re-took control of the House following the midterm elections.
“We will continue this fight until Obamacare is no longer the law of the land,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican who is a favorite of the fiscally conservative tea-party movement.
Democrats have pledged to block any efforts to toss the law out or change its fundamental elements.
Shares of hospitals, health insurers and related companies fell on Wednesday as the vote approached.
With Republicans in control of the House, the repeal bill was expected to easily pass on Wednesday. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has vowed to block the bill in the upper chamber of Congress, and Obama has said he’d veto it.
“This is nothing more than partisan grandstanding at a time when we should be working together to create jobs and strengthen the middle class,” Reid said about the House vote.
For his part, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said his party will make sure there’s an opportunity to vote on repeal in the Senate.
Republicans are expected to attack the health-care law piece by piece if they can’t repeal the measure outright.
One way would be to attempt to cut off funding for agencies that are responsible for putting the bill’s requirements in place. Republicans could, for example, target the Internal Revenue Service, which is charged with enforcing the requirement for most Americans to have insurance.
Opponents are also attacking the law in the courts, and a challenge about its constitutionality is expected to go all the way to the Supreme Court. In December, a U.S. judge in Virginia ruled that the law’s mandate for individuals to carry insurance is unconstitutional.
The White House, meanwhile, has been mounting an all-out PR campaign this week, touting the law’s benefits and highlighting stories from individuals the administration says have been helped by the law.
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We hear the sincerity on regulation, but what about this..?..
In August, Missouri voters voted 'NO' overwhelmingly on Obamacare. And in December, Federal Judge Henry Hudson ruled on the constitutionality of the individual mandate, the cornerstone of Obama's plan. As this graphic shows, the new law creates 68 grant programs, 47 bureaucratic entities, 29 demonstration or pilot programs, 6 regulatory systems, 6 compliance standards and 2 entitlements. What could possibly go wrong with something so-well organized?
Full-size image inside.
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Now watch this...
Video: Paul Ryan vs. Obama
More detail...
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More detail is here...