Posted on 08/31/2009 8:46:34 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Republicans will repeal healthcare reform legislation if they win control of Congress because of that bill, a key Republican pledged late Sunday.
The health bill is "dead on arrival" in Congress, said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, said during an interview on Fox News.
"If they somehow manage to get the votes and get enough Democrats to walk the plank and commit suicide, in the next Congress, I'll be chairman Joe Barton of the Energy and Commerce committee, and we'll repeal it," Barton said.
Republicans have shown optimism at picking up seats in the House and Senate in the 2010 midterm elections, largely as a byproduct of the contentious healthcare debate that has played out across the country.
Barton, whose committee is one of the three key House committees to craft healthcare legislation, suggested the current bill is basically not viable in its current form.
"Take the current bill and just tweak the public option and call it a 'deal' -- you put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of the potential changes that could be made to win lawmakers' votes. "I think this bill's dead on arrival."
President Obama has three options on healthcare, Barton said: Starting over, abandoning the bill, or muscling the bill through in a party-lines vote.
The third option, the Texas Republican said, would only hurt Democrats.
"If he chooses option three, muscle it through, he's committing his party, in my opinion, to the political wilderness," Barton argued.
We know it is extremely difficult to repeal legislation once it's signed. More smoke being blown up our @sses here. Congressman - STOP THE BILL NOW!
(Cartoon robot voice) - "Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!"
Repeal...Repeal...Repeal...and KILL THE BILL!!!!!
Oh, DO NOT fall for this, America.
They will do no such thing.
I was hoping they wouldn’t come out with this crap.
You don’t REALLY trust the GOP do you?
They couldn’t dream of ending Medicare, or SS, or any other big government program and we’re supposed to trust them to end the biggest in US history?
Again, please do not fall for this. You’re a fool if you do.
Do not let down your guard.
Stay the course.
> Congressman - STOP THE BILL NOW!
Republicans do not have the votes to stop the bill in the House. They might in the Senate, but it will be difficult and Senate Democrats can push it through anyway by using the “reconciliation option”.
The message, I believe, is aimed at Democrats who now have to decide if they should sacrificed their careers by supporting the bill that possibly has not future.
Fool me once.......
Republicans: If elected, we'll repeal this!
Conservative electorate: You shouldn't have let it get this far.
[Daleks: Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!]
[picture of a Dalek, lost in a swamp that was lost during filming]
The GOP has no chance in trying to stop this bill now if Dems got their heads out of their asses and just rammed it through
40 seat majority in the House
60 in the senate
Dem POTUS
The 2010 threat is really the only line of defense here that *could* have teeth
Sounds like the fox promising not to kill any more chickens if you just let him into the chicken coop this one time...
I understand that, but Democrats need Republican cross-over votes because they don't want to pass this turkey on their own. These types of ambiguous statements only serve to give the Dems wiggle room and hope for passage. This thread here says Republicans will repeal Obamacare in 2012. Which one is it?
The message, I believe, is aimed at Democrats who now have to decide if they should sacrificed their careers by supporting the bill that possibly has not future.
By saying they will repeal Obamacare in 2010 or 2012, the Republicans are signaling that they have no stomach to kill this thing NOW. I don't want to wait until 2010 or 2012, I want this thing deader than sardines. Plus you got Enzi still making statements about bipartisanship. The Pubbies are going to cave, you can bank on it.
“Repeal” is excellent. We don’t see that word used much.
The Congressman’s intended audience is the Democrats, not Republican voters.
added bonus with the Dalek plan: they apparently use mass transportation. Hybrids to boot.
Hello - Dems are not going to pass this WITHOUT some Republican votes. That's why you're seeing the Dems and liberal media blame Republicans for "obstructing." That is why McCain said he was open to compromise here and Enzi refuted Gibbs saying he folded on bipartisanship, which means that Enzi is still open to a deal.
And Obama will sign the new law repealing his hard-fought healthcare bill?
Exactly what I thought.
To repeal it they will have to override Obama’s veto. Not even in the fevered imaginations of the most optimistic pundits are we going to get two a thirds majority in both houses. So the only strategy that counts is to kill the bill before it passes.
Sure the would.
The would repeal it just like the repealed Medicare.
They just won the 2010 elections.
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