The House of Representatives moves to repeal Obamacare

 In one of its first actions after reelecting Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House the House of Representatives began to set in motion the repeal of Obamacare. Here is more:

Republican U.S. Senator Mike Enzi introduced on Tuesday a resolution allowing for the repeal of President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance program, which provides coverage to millions of Americans, Enzi’s office said in a statement.

The move by the Senate’s budget committee chairman on the first day of the new Congress set in motion the Republican majority’s promise to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, as its first major legislative item.

Republicans have said the repeal process could take months and that developing replacement health insurance plans could take years.

  Of course the House has voted to repeal Obamacare dozens of times in the past but that was only symbolic, however this time they may actually be able to do it through budget reconciliation because they will not need a single Democratic vote and Donald Trump is supposedly in favor of a repeal.

The Republicans are using a budget resolution to provide for Obamacare’s repeal, allowing them to act without any Democratic votes. Budget resolutions require a simple majority to pass in the Senate, instead of the 60 votes normally required to clear procedural hurdles. There are 52 Republicans in the 100-seat chamber.

The budget resolution contains so-called reconciliation instructions, directing committees to dismantle Obamacare as part of reconciling taxes and spending with the budget blueprint – and to report back to the budget committee by Jan. 27.

  Before the Democrats cry foul over this maneuver they should remember that this same process was used to pass Obamacare without a single Republican vote in the first place, possibly setting the stage for this repeal attempt.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium