Obama vetoes health bill repeal
President Obama on Friday vetoed legislation that would repeal much of ObamaCare, the first such measure to reach his desk since it became law in 2010.
Obama used his veto pen without fanfare on a legislative package rolling back his signature healthcare law and stripping federal funding from Planned Parenthood.
In
a lengthy message to Congress, Obama said repealing the law would
reverse improvements made in improving the nation’s healthcare system.
“Because
of the harm this bill would cause to the health and financial security
of millions of Americans, it has earned my veto,” the president wrote.
Obama noted that congressional Republicans have attempted to roll back the law more than 50 times, all to no avail.
“Rather
than refighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal
basic protections that provide security for the middle class, members of
Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen
middle-class families, and create new jobs,” he wrote.
The
veto was the eighth of Obama’s presidency and the sixth since last
year, when Republicans took over both chambers of Congress.
Even
though Obama long threatened to veto the measure, Republicans touted
the vote as an important step toward reversing the Affordable Care Act
if the party wins the White House in November.
“Now, is someone named Obama going to sign a bill into law repealing Obamacare? Of course not,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday.
“But we have now demonstrated that, if we elect a Republican president,
we can use this same path to repeal Obamacare without 60 votes in the
Senate.”
Republicans
were able to skirt a Democratic filibuster in the Senate by using a
budget process called reconciliation, which allows legislation to pass
the upper chamber with a simple majority.
The House voted mostly along party lines 240-181 on Wednesday to approve the legislation. It cleared the Senate in December.
The GOP also hoped the vote would help them dictate the political agenda in the early weeks of 2016.
But
the vote was overshadowed by Obama’s roll out of new executive actions
on guns, which were also designed to set the tone for Democrats heading
into election season.
The
legislation does not repeal all of ObamaCare, because the
reconciliation rules forced Republicans to choose certain elements to
eliminate.
The
reconciliation bill now headed to the White House does not repeal all
of ObamaCare, because the rules under reconciliation forced Republicans
to pick and choose.
The
bill still attacks core parts of the law, including an expansion of
Medicaid and federal subsidies to help people purchase health
insurance.
It
also scraps mandates on individuals to buy insurance and employers to
provide it as well as a litany of taxes, including levies on medical
devices and high-cost plans, known as the “Cadillac Tax.”
Peter Sullivan contributed to this report.
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