House Republicans plan early vote on health care repeal

By Susan Page and David Jackson, USA TODAYWASHINGTON — The new Republican leaders of the House of Representatives plan to hold a vote on repealing the White House's signature health care law before President Obama delivers the State of the Union address in late January, a key committee chairman said Sunday.The repeal effort is almost certain to fail — the measure would have to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and override a presidential veto — but the vote will send a combative message to the White House about the course ahead as the GOP takes control of the House on Wednesday.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, the incoming House Energy and Commerce chairman, Fred Upton, predicted that "a significant number of Democrats" would join Republican forces in opposing the new law.

If repeal fails, "we're going to go after this bill piece by piece," the Michigan Republican said. "We will look at these individual pieces to see if we can't have the thing crumble."

"You've seen that the more people learn about Obamacare the less they like it," Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said on CBS' Face the Nation. "So we will put forth a clean repeal bill of Obamacare, and you'll continue to see us make that fight because that's what the American people want us to do."

The law also faces about two dozen lawsuits in federal court. Some challenge the constitutionality of the provision that mandates most Americans to have health insurance, a requirement that doesn't go into effect until 2014. The issue is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court.

White House officials have been braced for the repeal effort in Congress, which speaker-in-waiting John Boehner promised during last fall's midterm campaigns. The issue helped galvanize the emerging Tea Party movement.

"I think Sen. (Mitch) McConnell and Congressman Boehner are going to have to answer questions from the American people about the benefits" of the law, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in his last formal briefing of the year.

Gibbs mentioned in particular parents who "no longer have to lay awake at night wondering if their children can be covered by health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition."

Under the law, insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to children because of a prior medical ailment. Provisions that went into effect Saturday give seniors caught in Medicare's "doughnut hole" — a gap in their coverage for prescription drugs — discounts on their medications and require insurance companies to spend at least 80% of premium payments on their customers.

Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine defended the health care law Sunday on CNN, saying it "is going to go down in history as one of the great achievements of this president."

Upton also vowed on Sunday to fight efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose new standards limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and oil refineries. Obama has been unable to win congressional approval for a proposal known as "cap and trade," which would restrict emissions and allow companies to buy and sell pollution permits.

In late December, the EPA announced a timetable for stricter rules on emissions after efforts to pass an energy bill failed in the lame duck session of Congress.

"We're going to have early, early hearings on this," Upton said.

The Republican-controlled House won't "let this administration regulate what they've been unable to legislate," he said.

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