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.
"Repeal" is a warning to Democrats what will happen if they pass it.
Doesn't imply it will pass at all. It's an attempt to stop it. Good tactic. No talk of "fixing" anything. No talk of "compromise" on a bill. Just a flat out threat that if Democrats do this, they will lose power and the GOP will undo what they did.
From in the dumpster to veto-proof majorities in both houses in one grand leap? Not even the current crop of idiot liberals can make mistakes so grand. In fact, if Obama can go behind closed doors with 218 reliable representatives, 50 reliable senators, and “good old Joe” Biden, he may emerge with another 1000 pages of indecipherable ultra-progressive legislation “passed, signed, sealed, and the law of the land forever,” because it will change our entire government irretrievably. I worry.
Problem is Obama has veto power till his ass is out.
Kill it NOW and don’t gamble on the future!!!
You’d need a veto proof majority cuz OBAMA ain’t going to sign a repeal of his prize.
This is stuck on stupid.
Repeal will never happen!
I don’t think you understand the situation. Democrats do not need a single Republican vote to pass the bill.
In fact, I hope that they do pass it with no Republican support in the House and maybe with only Snow/Collins in the Senate. The bill, as written, will not kick in until after the 2012 elections. This means it can be used in 2010 to gain House/Senate seats (and House majority) and again in 2012 to win the Presidency and, with any luck, the majority in the Senate.
When have the Republicans ever repealed a liberal entitlement program? I’m not falling for their empty promises this time. Come election day, throw them all out: Democrats and Republicans. It’s time to clear the slate and start entirely anew.
Like hell they will. Once an entitlement is passed we have it forever. This idiot is dreaming.
If the Republicans allow this to pass, they’re TOAST too. We The People are coming to take our country back from traitors bent on tyranny. Elitists, regardless of party, will be voted out in 2010 and 2012; anyone that passes the AuschwitzCare aka MengeleCare is toast.
You got that right..THEY ARE ALL GONE...ALL OF THEM...
What the heck are they talking about. They shouldn’t be a health care bill period.
While I appreciate and applaud the sentiment, when have Republicans ever repealed a Democrat social program?
Can anyone else think of a repealed Democrat social program? I can't think of one ever being repealed.
Some don’t seem to understand that the Republicans have NO way of stopping this bill from passing. They are the MINORITY party right now.
Yes, obama can veto a repeal, but, I still think that Congress has an option to override a veto. I’ll have to look that up, but, in the back of my mind, I believe there is a way.
I’m not in favor of throwing out the good people in Congress. Just the RINO’s and Dems.
Yes, I wonder if the Republicans are just trying to use this as a pretext to get elected! Mercy, they have so much to correct that if they were to get elected, they would have to spend all of their time just trying to correct their own party’s excesses, much less the Democrats!
First thing they could do is to promise to cut back the Federal Government by 30% minimum. Even after firing all that extra weight they could still get rid of another 10% without trying....so where are there promises for that?
I can think of several departments (with several thousand overpaid workers (term used lightly) that could be abolished overnight without effecting the country whatsoever! Why is it that they continue to work on the peripheral with their lightweight promises?
Well, I’ll tell you, because they are no different than the Democrats in hoping for big government - just different groups in power! We have no chance here - until a third party comes to power and that is so slim that it will probably never happen.
So...that leaves us, ordinary Americans with NO vote! We can vote for only the lesser of evils and the slower of the government expansionists... wow, what a bargain.
The Federal Government concept visualized by our forefathers has been completely turned on its head. The States have no control (even though it was granted to them in the Constitution). We have a Supreme Court that will not enforce our Constitution. The only way out is for the people to have their say...
Good to hear a republican with intestinal fortitude. That would be great to repeal anything and everything that the 0bama congress passes including porkulus.
If they repeal the legislation (of any other legislation for that matter) it can fail in the Senate and/or Obama can veto it.
What they can do is refuse to fund it (or any of Zero's other stupid laws), and it will be effectively repealed without going to the president's desk. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, and if we win the House we control the purse strings.
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