Republicans Vow
Repeal Effort Against Health Bill
Published: March 22, 2010, New York Times
WASHINGTON — As jubilant Democrats prepared for President
Obama to sign their landmark health care legislation with a big ceremony at
the White House, Republicans on Monday opened a campaign to repeal the
legislation and to use it as a weapon in this year’s hotly contested midterm
elections.
“We will not allow this to stand,” Representative Michele Bachman, Republican
of Minnesota, promised Monday afternoon as the House reconvened.
Democrats said they would focus on explaining the measure to their
constituents and on highlighting some immediate benefits, and called on
Republicans to ease off the attacks now that the legislation had passed.
“It is time to chill out, Republicans,” Representative Bob Filner, Democrat
of California, said. “Let this bill work. Let our constituents finally get
health care.”
But there were no signs of a ceasefire. Senate Democrats said they would take
up a budget
reconciliation measure containing the final revisions to the health care
overhaul shortly after Mr. Obama signs the main bill at the White House ceremony
on Tuesday.
Far from sounding a conciliatory note, Senate Republicans said they would
employ every procedural maneuver available to try to derail the reconciliation
bill, or at least punch holes in it by knocking out key provisions.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, quickly adopted a new rhetorical strategy on Monday,
asserting that the revisions Democrats want to push through would make the
health care law worse, not better.
“Democrat leaders now want us to take the bill that passed the Senate in
December and that the House voted on last night and make the tax hikes even
higher, the Medicare
cuts even deeper,” Mr. McConnell said in a floor speech. “They want us to
endorse a raft of new sweetheart deals that were struck behind closed doors last
week so this thing could limp over the finish line last night.”
It was unclear whether that argument would gain traction, given that many of
the changes in the reconciliation measure are aimed at adjusting provisions that
the Republicans themselves had previously criticized, such as the so-called
Cornhusker kickback that would provide extra Medicaid
money for Nebraska.
Still, Mr. McConnell’s remarks answered a question Democrats had already
begun asking about how Republicans would pivot in their opposition, now that the
bulk of the health care overhaul legislation was about to become law.
Around the country, the reaction to the House passage of the bill was
emotional, and in some cases violent.
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said that her Tucson
office was vandalized following her vote in support of the measure. A glass door
was shattered, she said.
Following a weekend when protesters outside the Capitol subjected some
Democratic lawmakers to racial slurs and epithets, Representative Randy
Neugebauer, a conservative Republican from Texas, said on Monday that he was the
lawmaker who shouted “baby killer” on the House floor Sunday night. The shout
was heard while Representative Bart
Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, was discussing abortion-related
provisions in the health care bill, and it was widely taken to have been
directed at him.
In a statement, Mr. Neugebauer, a third-term member of the House from
Lubbock, said he got caught up in the passions of the moment and was not
referring to Mr. Stupak personally but to the health care measure itself.
“In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase ‘it’s a baby
killer’ in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership,” Mr.
Neugebauer said. “While I remain heartbroken over the passage of this bill and
the tragic consequences it will have for the unborn, I deeply regret that my
actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak
himself.”
Across the nation, Republican candidates seized on the passage of the health
care legislation to bolster their effort to capture seats in Congress now held
by Democrats.
“Last night, Washington thumbed its nose at the American people, taking over
one-sixth of our nation’s economy and adding to the mountain of debt already
looming over our children’s future,” said former Representative Rob Simmons of
Connecticut, a Republican who hopes to replace Senator Christopher
J. Dodd, a Democrat who is retiring.
“This is not the time to give up and go home,” Mr. Simmons said. “Now is the
time to fight.”
Carl Hulse and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.