Senator Chuck Grassley. (file photo)
Many Republicans in the U.S. House say their top priority this year is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, an effort Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’d also support. “The answer is yes, because it’s something I voted against,” Grassley says. “It’s something that (I voted against) at least 38 times because the president made executive orders changing it, so the president admits that it’s not good policy.”
Grassley, a Republican, says the federal health care proposal is deeply flawed and needs to be both repealed and replaced. Grassley says, “Most importantly, it’s a stand that we took in the last couple of elections that once we have a chance to carry out, we ought to carry out what we’d promised the voters we’d do.”
The Senate is now under Republican control and House Republicans have a broader majority in their chamber. Grassley is confident the repeal of what he calls Obamacare will succeed in the House. “Now, as a practical matter, it will pass the House of Representatives,” Grassley says. “If we can get over a Democratic filibuster, it will pass the Senate. If we don’t get over a Democratic filibuster, it won’t pass the Senate, but we’re going to bring it up for debate.”
Any effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act will be vetoed by President Obama, who has two more years in office. Grassley says he’d welcome working with the president for, in his words, “fine tuning, or through amendment, change some of the really bad things” in the health care legislation.