The House of Representatives is close to taking its first step to replace Obamcare Friday afternoon.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who took to the House floor in a rare move to argue for the end of Obamacare, noted his opposition to the measure when it was first debated and said that Republicans were now sending in the “rescue” team.
“I can’t help but think back to when we were debating this law in 2010. As a member of the minority, I stood right here and pleaded with the majority not to do it. Don’t take something as personal as health care and subject it to this big government experiment. Don’t do something so arrogant and so contrary to our founding principles,” Ryan said. “My colleagues, this experiment has failed. This law is collapsing as we speak. And we have to step in before things get even worse. This is nothing short of a rescue mission.”
Shortly before the House was scheduled to vote to advance the measure, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi — who led the passage of the law in 2009 and 2010 when Democrats controlled the House — accused Republicans of attempting to “cut and run” on people with health insurance and argued that Republicans would end up cutting Medicare benefits as well.
“The Republican replacement plan is cut and run: cut benefits, cut investments and hospitals that care for our people, cut jobs. It’s with no positive upside to it,” Pelosi said. ‘We are not going to identify ourselves with cut and run, cutting benefits, cutting of those covered and cutting the savings that we have there.”
By using the budget “reconciliation” measure, Republicans are taking advantage of the same process which Democrats used seven years ago to pass the law — using a special budgeting rule that allows them to skirt a filibuster in the Senate.
But that strategy only works for fiscal measures in the healthcare law — like tax credits — and leaves untouched some of the more popular slices of the law, like allowing children to stay on their parents’ plans until they are 26.
The vote will clear the decks for Republicans to begin working on a repeal of the law — but the larger debate has engulfed the Capitol over how and when Republicans would replace the law.
The debate over replacement has exposed some rifts within the Republican Party, which now controls the White House and both chambers of Congress — the same position Democrats were in seven years ago.
Some conservative Republicans, including members of the small but influential House Freedom Caucus, balked at the measure — citing concerns about the timeline to replace Obamacare, and the lack of spending cuts in the underlying budget being voted one.
At the same time, more moderate members of the party are concerned about the party moving forward with repeal without more detailed replace plans. Millions of Americans could lose health insurance if Obamacare was rolled back before a replacement was in place.
Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent told CNN that he has “reservations” about the vote Friday.
“I think the repeal plan needs to be fully developed and better articulated before moving forward,” Dent said. “I had that conversation with the leadership, (to) try to be a bit more deliberative in trying to chart out the full strategy from repeal to replace. And make sure that we are in full sync with the Senate and the incoming White House. And I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
The budget concerns have prompted Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to vote against his party and the bill in the Senate, though Republicans still had the votes needed to pass it. Leadership insists that the resolution is only a shell for the budget, and not the final numbers.
But any replacement measure un-related to the budget will have to clear 60 votes in the Senate — a prospect that requires Democratic support, as Republicans only have a 52-seat majority. Republicans also have several competing plans to replace Obamacare, and No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn has indicated that the party may opt to move smaller pieces of legislation as opposed to one overarching replacement.
Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper at a town hall that the goal is to move everything at once.
“We want to do this at the same time, and in some cases in the same bill,” Ryan said. “So we want to advance repealing this law with its replacement at the same time.”