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Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider

Posted: 11:19 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Repeal And TBD 

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By Jamie Dupree

The Republican drive against the new Democratic health reform law took an interesting turn of semantics yesterday, as Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell laid out reasons why his party is so interested in getting that new law off the books.

"I think the slogan will be 'Repeal and Replace'," McConnell told reporters just outside the Senate chamber.

"No one that I know of in the Senate Republican Conference thinks that no action is appropriate" on health reform, said the top Senate Republican.

"We all think there are things that should be done."

That didn't go down well with some Republican bloggers, who quickly urged that it be "Repeal and Start Over."

"We must demand that they commit to repealing Obamacare and starting over, not just tinkering with it to make a monstrosity less of a monster," wrote Erick Erickson over at RedState.

Even as McConnell talked about doing something, he went immediately to the floor to start parliamentary machinations on a brand new bill from Senate Republicans:

"S. 3152, A bill to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," read the Senate reading clerk, as McConnell pushed the measure onto the Senate Calendar.

There are already several bills in the House to do the same thing, as Republicans press their case to overturn the new health reform law.

The Senate bill was introduced by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who has been one of the most outspoken critics of Democratic health policies under President Obama.  The language of S. 3152 is pretty simple:

"SECTION 1. REPEAL.  The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the amendments made by that Act, are repealed."

"Repealing this legislation is the only way we can start over with meaningful reforms that will improve our health care system," said co-sponsor Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK).

It's not only Republicans who have filed bills to repeal the health care bill, as Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) - who split his votes on the two health care bills in the House on Sunday - introduced his own plan to repeal eight specific provisions of the new health law.

Cooper calls it the "Removing Deals For Deficit Reduction Act."

Lots of people have written in to ask if any of these repeal efforts will go anywhere.

I guess I can only point everyone back to the approval of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act in 1988.  It was a bipartisan bill that was designed to give seniors an array of expanded benefits.

But seniors revolted over the extra monthly charges for the new benefits and a surtax that was leveled on seniors who had incomes over $35,000.

The original House vote was 328-72 in favor of the plan.  The Senate approved it 86-11.  

Over a year later, the House voted 360-66 to end the program.  

It's not an apples to apples comparison, but it's a reminder of how fast things can change in the political world on health care.

 
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