Republicans in the U.S. House are opening debate today on an effort to repeal the federal health care reform law, with a vote scheduled for tomorrow. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, says he disagrees with critics who say if the bill passes the House, it will be “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
“We’re surely going to try to have a vote,” Grassley says. “I think we’ve picked up a few Democrats. I think you’ll find a few Democrats voting to repeal in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, if any Democrats vote for repeal, they’ll be voting the opposite of what they did last year.” While Grassley says he’s planning to vote for the repeal, he realizes there simply won’t be enough votes to pass it in the narrowly-Democrat-controlled Senate.
“I think we can get to 50 but I think it’s impossible to get to 60,” Grassley says. “I think the end result of deadlock in the Senate is that this becomes an issue in the presidential campaign.” Certainly, Grassley says, President Obama will campaign for re-election based upon his support for the health care reform law.
Grassley says, “I don’t know who the Republican nominee is going to be but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t for repeal and replacement.” Grassley says he favors replacing or revising the current health care package, keeping some things, throwing other things out, and even adding a few elements, like medical malpractice.