“Repeal and Replace.” That’s what Republicans are saying about the new health-care law as they look toward the Nov. 2 midterm elections. If they win the House, and possibly the Senate, they say, among their top priorities will be to undo President Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
“I am committed to doing everything that I can do . . . to prevent ‘Obamacare’ from being implemented,” vowed House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) at a recent news conference, adding, “Now, when I say everything, I mean everything.”
But even in the unlikely event that an outright repeal bill could withstand a filibuster in the Senate, there is little doubt that Obama would veto it. The odds that Republicans will win a veto-proof majority in November are generally considered slim to nil.
With a few exceptions, Republican fallback plans to target discrete provisions of the law for piecemeal elimination seem similarly doomed.
So does all this talk of rolling back the law amount to mere sloganeering?
Not necessarily. But at least during the next Congress, the true battle will probably be fought at the margins, over initiatives Republicans are planning in order to slow or disrupt the administration’s preparations for 2014, when the most far-reaching provisions of the new law will begin.
Perhaps even more important for the long term, Republicans hope to hold oversight hearings aimed at laying the groundwork for a broad-based public repudiation of the law. That could give them the political momentum to overturn it if they can retake the presidency in 2012.
Full Story: Win or lose, Republicans to target new health-care law after November elections
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