Power

House Votes Yet Again To Repeal The Affordable Care Act

Even as the bill becomes more popular, Republicans still keep trying to get rid of it.

Congressional Republicans have held more than 30 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) since it was passed, but still that wasn’t enough. Now the House has voted for the 33rd time to repeal the ACA, making it the first vote to roll back health care reform since the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional.

The House voted 244 to 185 to repeal President Barack Obama’s landmark health care reform bill in a political stunt which House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said was meant to ensure “we may all be on record in order to show that the house rejects ‘Obamacare,’ and we are committed to taking this flawed law off the books.”

So why are Republicans so desperate to take the ACA down?  Because they want to get rid of reform before the public can really see the benefits of the act. George Zornick reports at The Nation:

Same crap, different day,” said Representative Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. “Republicans have fought against the New Deal, the Great Society, the expansion of Social Security, the establishment of the Social Security Act, Medicaid, Medicare—from day one. This is just another day.

“I think they’re most afraid of there being proof that it saves money towards the deficits, that it brings down costs, and I think when it’s fully implemented people will see the actual benefits of it,” Moore continued. “They know they’ve got to cut it off at the pass. They’ve got to cut off before it’s fully implemented.”

This was a theory echoed by several different members—that Republicans were desperate to obscure what the bill actually does. “The right-wing Tea Party voice that has been heard here against the bill has been very effective at getting people to hate the label,” said Representative Sam Farr. “But what they’ve failed at are getting people to hate the ingredients. Because the ingredients are things that are really helping people.”

Five Democrats voted with the Republicans to repeal the bill: North Carolina Congressmen Mike McIntyre and Larry Kissell, Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren, Utah Congressman Jim Matheson, and Arkansas Congressman Mike Ross. Repeal is not expected to pass the Senate.