House GOP 56th Vote to Repeal #ACA: 'Meaningless, Useless Vote...Sets Record For Futility'
From Washington Post's Dana Milbank:
With latest Obamacare repeal vote, GOP sets ‘record' for futility…
From Los Angeles Times:
…just the other day, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was telling Bret Baier of Fox News that the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill was "trying to get off to a fast start here." He explained, "The American people elected a new Congress. They want results." A couple of minutes later, he observed that among the first orders of business for the new results-oriented Congress would be a vote to repeal Obamacare…In other words, the House is treating U.S. healthcare policy with as much seriousness as it would treat a vote to name the marbled murrelet the national bird….This meaningless, useless vote is merely a reminder, as Greg Sargent writes, "that the only consensus GOP position on health reform is to blow up Obamacare and replace it with nothing."
From NPR:
Milestone House Vote Would Take Health Care Away From Millions
After dozens of votes attacking Obamacare in recent years, House Republicans' latest attempt Tuesday finally gets real…What makes today a milestone is that, for the first time, House Republicans plan to vote on whether to actually take health coverage away from millions of Americans who now have it…More precisely: 19 million of them by the end of the year, according to a recent estimate from the Congressional Budget Office…This could be one reason why Curbelo's Spanish response to President Obama's State of the Union address last month avoided the Affordable Care Act altogether.
From MSNBC:
Everyone has hobbies. For some, voting dozens of times to take away families' access to health care benefits seems like less of a legislative priority, and more of a leisurely diversion – a pastime of sorts intended to help Republicans relax, pass the time, and feel better about themselves.
From NBC News:
House GOP Approve Full Repeal of Obamacare (Again)…House Republicans on Tuesday continued their efforts to dismantle President Barack Obama's signature health care law, voting to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act for the first time since the new Congress took office last month.
From Huffington Post:
House Passes 56th Anti-Obamacare Measure…Republicans insisted on the vote, casting it as a chance to send a message and let new GOP members have a chance to vote against a law that most of them contend destroys jobs, freedom and the Constitution.
From National Journal:
House Votes to Repeal Obamacare, Again…the House has held more than 50 anti-Obamacare votes since Republicans took control in 2011…Republicans are forever working on the "replace" part of their "repeal and replace" agenda…It's unclear what that "something" would be; lawmakers, as always, say they're working on it.
From Talking Points Memo:
It may seem like business as usual, but this time the consequences are greater…It's the first time House Republicans are voting to repeal the law while the Senate is also under GOP control. That puts pressure on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to bring up the House repeal bill…Once again, Boehner says there'll be a Republican alternative, something he has been promising for some five years without success.
From New York Times:
House G.O.P. Again Votes to Repeal Health Care Law…The House passed a bill on Tuesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the first time in the new Congress, but Democrats appeared to show more zeal in defending the law than Republicans did in trying to get rid of it…Republicans in both chambers are divided over how to replace the law and how to respond if the Supreme Court upholds a challenge to insurance subsidies now being provided to millions of people under the law…This time the repeal vote was different because millions of Americans have gained coverage through provisions of the law that expanded eligibility for Medicaid and subsidized private insurance for low- and middle-income people.
From MSNBC:
GOP plan ‘will be flown in by a unicorn sliding down a rainbow'…If it were easy to create a conservative "Obamacare" alternative that does all of the same great stuff, but in a way that Republicans find ideologically satisfying, the GOP wouldn't have waited six years to give this a try…The question isn't whether this gambit will fail; it's when Republicans will realize their scheme won't work – because it can't.