Repeal of Obamacare is the Right First Step!!!!

The Republicans are right here...America does NOT WANT this Obamacare bill...they didn't want it when it was put into law using corruption, back room dealings, rule twisting...AND they don't want it now...Much of the midterm election results were about Obamacare even though the Democrats won't admit it...Pelosi said we have to pass it know what's in it...well Nancy it got passed, we know what's in the bill now and we like it even less now than we did then....It has to go..and making a formal repeal where we can count votes pro and con is the right place to START!

Democrats, Republicans spar over health care reform

By JENNIFER HABERKORN & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN | 1/4/11 4:07 PM EST

Even before the new Congress opened for business, Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday began refighting the epic battle over health care reform and the House Republican plan to repeal the new law next week.

Incoming Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) defended the Jan. 12 vote as the fulfillment of an election mandate, arguing there was no need to hold hearings or allow amendments because “this health care bill has been litigated.”

The soon-to-be House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in turn, put up a strong defense, foreshadowing the role she plans to take once the new Congress begins Wednesday. She accused Republicans of being hypocrites: They ran on fiscal austerity but in pushing repeal, they would swell the deficit – since the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the law would cut the deficit by $143 billion over the next 10 years.

“So to say we’re going to repeal it is, just as has been said by my colleagues, is to do very serious violence to the national debt and deficit,” Pelosi told reporters.

The sharp exchanges signaled that, at least for the next week, health care would dominate the debate in the House as the parties settle into their new roles in the minority and majority. Democrats and Republicans squabbled over policy and procedure Tuesday, giving the new Congress a sense of deja vu.

House Republicans suggested that they won’t allow amendments or an open debate on their bill to repeal the health care law, citing the extensive legislative process Democrats undertook last year.

“Most people here and elsewhere believe this health care bill has been litigated,” Cantor said. “It’s a straightforward document.”

The move drew a rebuke from Democrats, who argued that repealing the benefits in the reform law warrants additional hearings and time. They’ve dubbed the Republican proposal “NoCare.”

“The Republicans’ NoCare plan would raise the number of uninsured by 32 million, balloon the deficit, raise health care costs for seniors, and raise taxes on small businesses that provide health care for their employees,” said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Cailf.), outgoing chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. “No wonder they want to skirt their own rules to jam this bill through.”

Republicans plan to hold a vote on repealing the legislation on Wednesday. A vote on the rule for the debate is expected this Friday. Cantor justified the quick vote as something the public wants and one of the key promises Republicans made during the mid-term election.

“The American people are expecting quick action on the part of the new Republican majority,” he said.

Cantor went so far as to suggest the CBO fudged its cost analysis of the health care law, saying it did what it was asked by the Democratic majority to come up with a bill that appeared to reduce the deficit.

“I think most people understand the CBO did job it was asked to do by the then-Democratic majority,” Cantor said. “Everybody knows that beyond the 10-year window this has the potential to bankrupt the federal budget and the states.”

The bill is expected to sail through the Republican-controlled House but be blocked by Democrats in the Senate. From there, House Republicans say they plan to try to repeal the legislation piece by piece.

Cantor would not comment on which pieces are going to be targeted first. He said that responsibility will be given to the oversight committees and committees with health jurisdiction, including Ways and Means, Education and Labor and Energy and Commerce.

Democrats pounced on the Republican approach.

“It is insincere to run on a platform of openness and fiscal discipline and then in one of your first acts as the majority party brings major legislation to the floor without any public hearings and without paying for the trillion dollar cost of repeal,” the outgoing Democratic chairmen of the Education & Labor, Ways & Means and Energy & Commerce committees wrote in a letter to their Republican counterparts on Tuesday. “Repealing the health care law will increase the deficit, kill jobs, increase taxes, and deny care to women, children, and seniors.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) called the repeal effort “disingenuous” and “nothing but political theater.”