House GOP, Again, Votes To Repeal Obamacare
Wednesday's effort is the 33rd attempt to strike down at least part of the landmark reform package.
| Posted Wednesday, July 11, 2012, at 4:22 PM
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
UPDATE: As promised, House Republicans on Wednesday voted (yet again) to repeal President Obama's landmark health care law. The final tally was 244 to 185, with a total of five Democrats breaking ranks with their party to support the repeal.
The five congressmen in question: Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), and Mike Ross (Ark.).
The vote was the second time the lower chamber has voted to repeal the entire law, and the 33rd time that it has voted to repeal or defund some piece of the reform package. This, however, was the first time they have done so since the Supreme Court ruled the law—and its controversial individual mandate—constitutional.
The House GOP-led effort has zero chance of passing in the current Senate, where Democrats remain in control. Politico has more on the vote here.
Wednesday, July 11: As House Republicans prepare to vote on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (again) on Wednesday, media attention is increasingly turning toward conservative reluctance to discuss a specific alternative to the Obama administration's health care reform.
The House has voted 32 times to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, according to the Washington Post, who have a full list of each vote. Wednesday's incarnation of the effort was announced shortly after the Supreme Court upheld most of the reform law.
As the Associated Press explains, Republicans last offered a full alternative to the health care reform law in 2009. Republicans declined to discuss specifics of a possible replacement to Obamacare on Tuesday, arguing that the law was unpopular enough to warrant a repeal on its own.
While the law has seen low favorability ratings in polls, a survey released Wednesday indicates that its popularity among Americans has increased since the Supreme Court ruling. While only 39 percent of Americans supported the law in April (with 53 percent opposed), according to regular polling by the Washington Post and ABC, the numbers are now evenly split with 47 percent each for and against. In that poll, just one-third of Americans wanted to see a full repeal of the law, the Hill notes.
