GOP lawmakers face pressure from base to target ObamaCare – or else
By Barnini Chakraborty
Published January 22, 2015
Will GOP face backlash if they don't repeal ObamaCare?
WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers are facing rising pressure from conservatives groups and activists to go big – or potentially go home – in their fight against ObamaCare.
After taking control of Congress thanks to big victories in the November midterms, Republicans who ran in part on their opposition to the law are starting to roll out legislation undoing pieces of it. But the party is stuck in an internal debate over how far they can really go – risking a potential backlash from the party’s right flank if they don’t go far enough.
Tea Party activists say they are frustrated with the pace of progress toward conservatives’ goal of upending the Affordable Care Act.
Some activists are encouraging members to “fax blast” all 435 House members and 100 senators and demand they “drive a stake through the heart of ObamaCare once and for all.”
Some Tea Party-backed lawmakers like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are leading the charge against the Affordable Care Act. The senator, and potential presidential candidate, recently warned that Republicans will “get walloped” in 2016 if they don’t live up to their promises, including working to get the health law eliminated.
But so far, several Republican lawmakers, like Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have indicated they’d have better luck chipping away at the law “piece by piece.”
On Wednesday, Hatch and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., introduced legislation to repeal the health care law’s individual mandate requiring most people to obtain insurance. The legislation, called the American Liberty Restoration Act, is backed by 20 GOP senators.
"This legislation strikes ObamaCare’s individual mandate and restores the freedoms outlined in the Constitution,” Hatch said in a written statement.
Hatch and a group of bipartisan senators also are pushing a bill to scratch the law’s controversial 2.3 percent tax hike on medical devices.
Several conservative activists and commentators in recent weeks have urged the new Republican Congress to be aggressive. Since right after the election, Brent Bozell, chairman of the conservative ForAmerica group has said the Republican majority “must” keep its “promise” to pass a full repeal bill, if only to force a presidential veto.
If they don’t, it raises the possibility not only of turbulence for GOP congressional candidates in 2016 but a groundswell of anti-ObamaCare pressure in the presidential primaries and caucuses.
In the official Republican response to the State of the Union address, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, vowed that the party will “keep fighting to repeal and replace a health care law that's hurt so many hardworking families.”
Freshman Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also has called for Congress to go after the law and is among many GOP lawmakers who have signed a pledge calling for its repeal. He recently told The Hill, “There is a tide rising” against the health law.
But like Hatch, he has put forward bills repealing the medical device tax and the individual mandate – parts of the law, not the whole thing.
Party strategists have questioned whether aiming for full repeal is worth the effort, when President Obama would surely veto.
“Republicans should not, again, go down the road of full repeal for ObamaCare when they know the president’s not going to have an epiphany and say, ‘You know what? I screwed up. Yeah, let’s repeal my legacy legislation,’” Republican strategist Brad Blakeman told FoxNews.com.
Top GOP lawmakers have been unclear about their intentions.
For the most part, GOP leaders still say they want to repeal the law but have focused on piecemeal bills and other pressing matters, ranging from immigration to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last week, during a Republican retreat in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called ObamaCare a “terrible law” that’s “beyond repair” and needs to be replaced. Ryan, however, did not offer a timeline for doing so.
Lara Brown, director of the political management program at George Washington University, says frustration with the GOP caucus is ill-placed.
“I think that Republicans have the ability to say to their base that ‘we can only move as fast as our political power allows’ and the reality is that they don’t yet have the White House,” Brown told FoxNews.com. “The reality is you still need 60 votes to get a bill through the Senate. Republicans have to be very calculated, and they don’t want to burn any bipartisan bridges.”
She predicted there would not be a huge backlash for the party if they don’t confront the law head-on, because Republicans can easily remind voters that they did not win the White House in 2012.
An X-factor in Republicans’ strategy is a pending Supreme Court case. The court in March is slated to hear a case that questions the legality of the subsidies that are at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. That’s got Republican lawmakers crafting a game plan in case the court creates an opening to push an alternative health overhaul (though the Obama administration has voiced confidence in their case).
Blakeman said Republicans should attack ObamaCare strategically.
“We have a lot of Democratic support. Let’s fix that which is broken until Obama is out of office,” he said. “Let’s get a Republican in the White House and then we can talk about serious overhaul almost completely of ObamaCare or outright strike it down.”
Democratic strategist Joe Lestingi said Republicans, though, lose by waiting – as Americans grow used to the law.
“[ObamaCare] is going to become more popular and by the time we get a Republican president, this thing is going to be well ingrained in society,” Lestingi told FoxNews.com. “People will be used to this program. People will like the coverage they have and it will be really hard for Republicans to overturn.”
The Republican-controlled House has voted more than 50 times to repeal or defund all or parts of ObamaCare. None of those bills, however, were considered by the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats until this month.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/22/gop-lawmakers-face-pressure-from-base-to-target-obamacare-or-else/
![GOP lawmakers face pressure from base to target ObamaCare – or else Barnini-politics2](http://a57.foxnews.com/global.fncstatic.com/static/managed/img/News/48/48/barnini-politics2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
By Barnini Chakraborty
Published January 22, 2015
Will GOP face backlash if they don't repeal ObamaCare?
WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers are facing rising pressure from conservatives groups and activists to go big – or potentially go home – in their fight against ObamaCare.
After taking control of Congress thanks to big victories in the November midterms, Republicans who ran in part on their opposition to the law are starting to roll out legislation undoing pieces of it. But the party is stuck in an internal debate over how far they can really go – risking a potential backlash from the party’s right flank if they don’t go far enough.
Tea Party activists say they are frustrated with the pace of progress toward conservatives’ goal of upending the Affordable Care Act.
Some activists are encouraging members to “fax blast” all 435 House members and 100 senators and demand they “drive a stake through the heart of ObamaCare once and for all.”
Some Tea Party-backed lawmakers like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are leading the charge against the Affordable Care Act. The senator, and potential presidential candidate, recently warned that Republicans will “get walloped” in 2016 if they don’t live up to their promises, including working to get the health law eliminated.
But so far, several Republican lawmakers, like Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have indicated they’d have better luck chipping away at the law “piece by piece.”
On Wednesday, Hatch and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., introduced legislation to repeal the health care law’s individual mandate requiring most people to obtain insurance. The legislation, called the American Liberty Restoration Act, is backed by 20 GOP senators.
"This legislation strikes ObamaCare’s individual mandate and restores the freedoms outlined in the Constitution,” Hatch said in a written statement.
Hatch and a group of bipartisan senators also are pushing a bill to scratch the law’s controversial 2.3 percent tax hike on medical devices.
Several conservative activists and commentators in recent weeks have urged the new Republican Congress to be aggressive. Since right after the election, Brent Bozell, chairman of the conservative ForAmerica group has said the Republican majority “must” keep its “promise” to pass a full repeal bill, if only to force a presidential veto.
If they don’t, it raises the possibility not only of turbulence for GOP congressional candidates in 2016 but a groundswell of anti-ObamaCare pressure in the presidential primaries and caucuses.
In the official Republican response to the State of the Union address, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, vowed that the party will “keep fighting to repeal and replace a health care law that's hurt so many hardworking families.”
Freshman Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also has called for Congress to go after the law and is among many GOP lawmakers who have signed a pledge calling for its repeal. He recently told The Hill, “There is a tide rising” against the health law.
But like Hatch, he has put forward bills repealing the medical device tax and the individual mandate – parts of the law, not the whole thing.
Party strategists have questioned whether aiming for full repeal is worth the effort, when President Obama would surely veto.
“Republicans should not, again, go down the road of full repeal for ObamaCare when they know the president’s not going to have an epiphany and say, ‘You know what? I screwed up. Yeah, let’s repeal my legacy legislation,’” Republican strategist Brad Blakeman told FoxNews.com.
Top GOP lawmakers have been unclear about their intentions.
For the most part, GOP leaders still say they want to repeal the law but have focused on piecemeal bills and other pressing matters, ranging from immigration to the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last week, during a Republican retreat in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called ObamaCare a “terrible law” that’s “beyond repair” and needs to be replaced. Ryan, however, did not offer a timeline for doing so.
Lara Brown, director of the political management program at George Washington University, says frustration with the GOP caucus is ill-placed.
“I think that Republicans have the ability to say to their base that ‘we can only move as fast as our political power allows’ and the reality is that they don’t yet have the White House,” Brown told FoxNews.com. “The reality is you still need 60 votes to get a bill through the Senate. Republicans have to be very calculated, and they don’t want to burn any bipartisan bridges.”
She predicted there would not be a huge backlash for the party if they don’t confront the law head-on, because Republicans can easily remind voters that they did not win the White House in 2012.
An X-factor in Republicans’ strategy is a pending Supreme Court case. The court in March is slated to hear a case that questions the legality of the subsidies that are at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. That’s got Republican lawmakers crafting a game plan in case the court creates an opening to push an alternative health overhaul (though the Obama administration has voiced confidence in their case).
Blakeman said Republicans should attack ObamaCare strategically.
“We have a lot of Democratic support. Let’s fix that which is broken until Obama is out of office,” he said. “Let’s get a Republican in the White House and then we can talk about serious overhaul almost completely of ObamaCare or outright strike it down.”
Democratic strategist Joe Lestingi said Republicans, though, lose by waiting – as Americans grow used to the law.
“[ObamaCare] is going to become more popular and by the time we get a Republican president, this thing is going to be well ingrained in society,” Lestingi told FoxNews.com. “People will be used to this program. People will like the coverage they have and it will be really hard for Republicans to overturn.”
The Republican-controlled House has voted more than 50 times to repeal or defund all or parts of ObamaCare. None of those bills, however, were considered by the Senate, which was controlled by Democrats until this month.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/22/gop-lawmakers-face-pressure-from-base-to-target-obamacare-or-else/
» utube 7/25/24 MM&C Iraq Dinar Update - IQD Revaluation-Key Indicators - Deposit Insurance -Arbitra
» utube 7/23/24 MM&C Iraq Dinar-Prime Minister Advisors-Saleh-Al-Nusairi-Facts bringng facts-Reforms
» Al-Jawahiri: Iraq continues to increase its oil production.. Is this OPEC’s role?
» Al-Sudani pressures factions to calm escalation against Americans, seeks Tehran's support
» A 40 km deep void threatens Iraq.. Baghdad and Erbil agreed but "without training, a base and an air
» Iranian sources to Baghdad Today: Tehran has not reached an agreement with Baghdad regarding the ent
» China accuses NATO of stirring up strife in 4 countries, including Iraq
» Within a week.. more than one billion dollars in sales from the Central Bank of Iraq
» "Billions of Dinars" Disbursed to Political Parties from 2024 Budget as "Financial Grants" (Document
» "An ill-considered decision".. The heart of Baghdad is exposed to financial losses
» With documents.. Billions of dinars in grants were disbursed to parties from the current year’s budg
» "He returned from Iraq doubtful." Will Vance change his country's policy in its wars outside its bor
» Quadripartite meeting in Baghdad stresses the need to support the development road project
» The Minister of Oil inaugurates the first phase of the central processing station in the Al-Faiha oi
» Bitcoin regains $67,000 level... and Ethereum jumps 4%
» Oil Products launches a fuel card to provide citizens with kerosene in Nineveh
» "Criticism" haunts the work of the Iraqi negotiating committees in Washington regarding the presence
» Ministerial Swaps: The High Price of Being Speaker
» Hussein Arab: Parliamentary bodies added 2.5 trillion dinars to the governorates in the budget, whic
» Four countries meet in Baghdad to support the development road project
» Call for investigation after the overthrow of a smuggling network in the North Oil Company
» Oil MP rules out oil and gas law
» Rule of Law: General amnesty includes those who committed ordinary crimes, not terrorists
» MP identifies the paragraph that delays the settlement of the salary scale
» The Kurdistan National Party welcomes Al-Sudani's initiative to end the Kirkuk problem
» 42 projects allocated to the second largest district in Basra
» Wasted budgets.. Estimates reach 450 billion dollars and the money of "Iraq's rich" is equal to 9 co
» Within months.. Al-Imar: The amount of loans disbursed amounted to about 750 billion dinars
» $100 million Iraq's citrus imports in 6 months
» Pilot plan in Erbil: Electricity for all citizens within 24 hours
» Contrary to expectations: The Iraqi passport is in its best condition in 8 years
» Parliamentary exclusion of the legislation of the oil and gas law during the current year
» The National Union announces to the region’s employees: The salary crisis has ended after linking it
» Immigration confirms the increase in the number of people wishing to return to their original areas
» Baghdad.. Launching a link to work as a researcher in the general population census
» Three suspects arrested for receiving 6 million dinars in exchange for completing a retirement trans
» Report highlights Trump's vice president's shifts in Iraq war
» Al-Sudani stresses the importance of putting the interests of Kirkuk people first in any agreement b
» Due to illusory political achievements.. Warnings of Sinjar people being displaced again - Urgent
» Warning and fears of the exploitation of political money in the Kurdistan Parliament elections
» During a week.. more than 15 billion dinars in "non-oil" imports for two governorates and two local
» Mazhar Muhammad Salih points to the weakness of the cash credit ratio in private banks
» Parliamentary efforts to amend the investment law to improve the Iraqi economy and attract foreign c
» Economist reveals reasons for rising prices of goods and products: lack of government support and ex
» Al-Halbousi imposes “difficult conditions” on the ruling coalition
» Requesting 25 million to close the case of a drug suspect.. Integrity arrests an impersonator in a “
» Government attempts to rescue Iraqi industry from imports.. Will local support succeed?
» Political parties control the sale of the dollar.. A new threat to the stability of the national eco
» Water scarcity and environmental degradation threaten cotton in Iraq.. Farmers demand urgent solutio
» In a Security Council session, Iraq calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza
» Stability of dollar prices in local markets
» New jobs in Baghdad
» Alsumaria News publishes the link to apply for "new jobs"
» Parliamentary Investment: Amending the Investment Law will eliminate exceptions
» Dollar exchange rates in Iraqi stock exchanges
» MMK&C 7/21/24 Government Advisor: Adopting auditing of foreign transfers contributes
» MM&C 7/21/24 Proposed measures to address the rise of the dollar
» Iraq ranks high in income inequality among citizens
» Within months.. Al-Imar: The amount of loans disbursed amounted to about 750 billion dinars
» Parliamentary Integrity confirms the start of opening the files of former officials
» Iraq and the German Development Bank sign an amendment to the loan agreement to finance a number of
» Regional oil...between export ban and smuggling suspicions
» Economist: Faw Port is an important step towards sustainable economic development and a major gatewa
» Parliamentary Investment "Mocks" Solution to Housing Crisis in Complexes: "Joke" and Government Must
» Multi-million dollar agreement to support Iraqi agriculture
» From Chaos to Law.. The Crowd Breathes with the First Reading of “Service and Retirement”
» Oil Minister inaugurates first phase of associated water injection project in Rumaila field
» Water Resources: The reality of desertification in Iraq is better than before
» Disappearance of 50,000 Pakistani tourists in Iraq.. Government position: We will start the investig
» Iraq reveals the value of its agricultural exports: 400 thousand tons in 6 months
» Electricity directs the rapid implementation of the solar power plant project in Khanaqin
» Worth $20 billion.. Iraq is second in trade exchanges with Iran
» (56) megawatt card.. Opening of the gas power plant in Majnoon field
» Parliamentary Committee: Amending this law will address many problems
» Iraq and the German Development Bank (KFW) sign an amendment to the loan agreement to finance a numb
» Finance discusses regulating the work of government banks with international auditing firm Ernst & Y
» The Prime Minister receives the approval of the coalition of companies that won the investment oppor
» US Ambassador: We helped Iraq with $3.6 billion in the displaced file
» In two stages.. The Minister of Oil inaugurates the associated water injection project in the Rumail
» Who manipulated the budget settings? Adding 15 trillion dinars for the benefit of the people or for
» Statement of the Iraqi Communist Workers’ Party on the “Personal Status Law Amendment” Project
» The American arm has become short.. Iraq will eradicate the “SDF” from Syria
» The idea of the “Sunni region” is maturing again.. The insistence of Western politicians collides
» Iraq takes its share of negative development and faces “electronic blackmail”
» Education in Iraq: Between the lack of schools and the delay in providing supplies
» Economist lays out solutions to get rid of the dollar’s dominance: moving towards a currency baske
» The Presidency of the Republic issues a special pardon for a bank manager accused of embezzlement
» The Ministry of Agriculture reveals the volume of its exported products in numbers
» Transport reveals its latest steps towards lifting the European ban on Iraqi Airways
» "Doors are closed" in Parliament.. Will political pressures result in the election of a new presiden
» Prime Minister's Advisor: Kirkuk government formation will be decided within 20 days
» US dollar exchange rate stability in Baghdad
» Reconstruction: New applications for Housing Fund loans will be opened when liquidity is available
» The US Federal Reserve adopts a new strategy towards Iraq.. The dollar is threatened with rising to
» First government comment on the leakage of 50 thousand Pakistanis in Iraq
» Parliamentary Integrity Committee announces keeping the session hosting the Minister of Water Resour
» Parliamentarian reveals the reason for the recent talk about the Sunni region
» Secrets of the Coordination Framework meeting with the Sunni forces.. Three proposals to resolve the