(Daily Signal) – Rep. John Fleming, R-La., is emboldening
House leadership to embrace a budget tactic that would lower the threshold of
votes needed to rollback provisions of Obamacare.
“We all say that we want to repeal Obamacare, and we would
all love a clean, full repeal,” Fleming said in an interview with The Daily
Signal. “But the truth is, sometimes it’s kind of like making sausage. You have
to do it one step at a time. You’ve got to approach it from the standpoint that
you make substantial gains today, and then the next opportunity, you make
more.”
Fleming is circulating a letter among Republican colleagues
that calls on House leadership to use budget reconciliation to repeal the
Affordable Care Act. So far, 20 lawmakers have signed the letter, and Fleming
hopes to get 80 more of his colleagues to add their names before sending it to
House Speaker John Boehner.
“Mr. Speaker, our constituents are hurting from the
consequences of Obamacare, and we urge you to include reconciliation
instructions that will repeal all reconcilable aspects of Obamacare in the
fiscal year 2016 budget resolution,” the letter to Boehner said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not yet said
whether he will pursue budget reconciliation to repeal Obamacare, though his
office previously said he would be willing to attempt it.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a floor speech earlier
this month he expects the Senate to use a variety of procedural mechanisms.
“We’re going to use every tool that is out there, including
reconciliation,” he said.
Fleming said he’s confident reconciliation can successfully
be used to repeal Obamacare, but contended that leadership needs to engage with
members on it.
Some leadership aides have dismissed the idea of pushing for
budget reconciliation and argue it’s a tool only used in the Senate. Fleming,
though, said the process requires collaboration from both chambers.
“Now that we have the Senate and the House fully controlled
by Republicans, we need to be working together,” Fleming said. “For them to
repeal parts of Obamacare through reconciliation would require some preparatory
work on our part. The budget begins in the House, so we would need to begin to
format the budget in a way that would make it easier for the Senate to do a
budget reconciliation.”
The tactic would not fully repeal the law, but Fleming said
reconciliation would dismantle it to severely limit its functionality.
Congress created reconciliation in 1974 with the Budget Act,
and it’s a tool at lawmakers’ disposal to balance the budget. The process
includes the drafting of “instructions” in a budget resolution that call on
House and Senate committees to craft legislation reconciling the law with the
budget.
When a reconciliation bill goes before the Senate, it cannot
be filibustered, and just 51 votes—a majority—are needed to advance and pass
the legislation.
Democrats used the move in 2009 when Congress voted on the
Affordable Care Act. Now, almost six years later, Republicans are debating
whether to employ the same tactic to push back against the health care law.
GOP leaders have placed a repeal of Obamacare at the top of
their priority list now that Republicans control both the House and Senate,
though it’s unclear how they plan to do so.
Despite Republicans’ goals, the president threatened to veto
any legislation repealing his signature health care law, and budget
reconciliation is subject to a veto.
Still, Fleming said the GOP shouldn’t rule out using
reconciliation, even if it does get struck down by Obama.
“That’s how you win these battles over long periods of time.
You continue to fight. You continue to bring it up. You continue to message it
to your constituents and to America in general,” he said. “And when they see
that the other side, in this case President Obama, continues to reject what are
good ideas, that’s how you build a groundswell of support and finally push it
across the finish line.”
http://dailysignal.com/2015/01/29/republican-congressman-urges-house-leadership-use-reconciliation-repeal-obamacare/
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See more at: http://www.teaparty.org/gop-floats-reconciliation-repeal-obamacare-80323/#sthash.rx0D1MfJ.dpuf
http://www.teaparty.org/gop-floats-reconciliation-repeal-obamacare-80323/
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