http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/233582-gop-gets-bad-news-on-obamacare-repeal-plan
The Senate’s chief referee has dealt a significant setback to conservatives who want to send an ObamaCare repeal bill to the president’s desk this year.
GOP sources say Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has raised red flags in response to queries about whether it’s possible to use a special budgetary procedure to repeal the controversial law “root and branch,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said.
Senate Republican officials have pushed for an interpretation of the rules that would allow for repealing the law with a one-sentence provision on a simple-majority vote.
The special process is known as budgetary reconciliation. It can be used to circumvent the Senate’s customary 60-vote threshold to produce changes in spending and revenue.
But it’s a matter of debate about how broadly it can be interpreted.
Some conservatives argue that because ObamaCare impacts spending and revenue, 51 Senate Republicans and a majority of the House can pass a one-sentence provision. While President Obama would surely veto a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, many Republicans want to get such a measure on his desk.
And there is growing pressure on GOP leaders to make that happen. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tea Party groups, including FreedomWorks and the Senate Conservatives Fund, have called on the Republican-led Congress to use reconciliation on ObamaCare.
“We think from what we’ve heard there’s a really credible case to be made that the one-sentence repeal instruction for reconciliation passes all the tests,” said Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action for America.
“From our vantage point, we think there are credible arguments that you can get all of ObamaCare [repealed] through reconciliation and that’s where the focus of lawmakers should be as the budget comes up and as instructions are written,” he added.
The Kentucky Republican has also refused to commit to using reconciliation on ObamaCare. Last fall, McConnell appeared to downplay expectations on a 51-vote strategy, telling Fox News that it would take 60 votes and a presidential signature to nullify the healthcare law.
“No one thinks we’re going to get that,” McConnell said at the time.
If ObamaCare cannot be overturned with a one-sentence reconciliation bill, Republican senators will have to pick it apart section by section in a time-consuming process that will be laboriously debated with the Democrats.
House and Senate Republicans are expected to unveil budget blueprints in the coming weeks, with the goal of passing a unified resolution this spring. Decisions on what bills can pass Congress with 51 Senate votes under reconciliation rules must be made soon.
The Senate Budget Committee declined to comment for this article.
Senate Republican aides are split as to whether ObamaCare can be repealed cleanly.
“It would be great if we could, but we can’t,” said a Senate Republican leadership aide.
One conservative aide, however, said the budget could instruct the committees of jurisdiction, the Finance and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panels, to report bills that reduced the deficit by a certain amount. Those panels could then report relatively simple repeal bills that would pass with simple-majority votes.
this is really going to be short and sweet i promise, ask yourself why are they so willing to go through so much of taxpayer money and time to after 56 failed times to repeal a popular law that all who have it republicans included like it and want to keep it and what about the thousands who have insurance finally just yank that rug out from under them relegating them to pre ObamaCares days and insurance crippling fees? to quote people who recently said "this is no way to run a government". and why do they think it's good if they could? your gov't not working for you. ok not so short but sweet?
