Republican promises to repeal health care have gone from full speed ahead to … we’ll see.
As Democrats are out celebrating the passage of the sweeping health care reform package, some Republicans are having second thoughts. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went from promising repeal at campaign events to admitting recently on Fox that President Obama would veto any repeal legislation should the GOP win back control of Congress. Hence the new “repeal and replace” push from Republicans.
But several Republicans have gone even farther in recent days, backing away from repeal pledges.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said today that it may not be repeal, but rather “big changes” to the health care bill. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested the Republicans could win back a majority and then just vote to cut off funding for the law.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said yesterday repeal is “not going to happen.”
Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), running for Senate, has gone from signing a repeal pledge run by the conservative Club for Growth to saying he’s not so sure. As we reported, Kirk has backed off and says now he opposes portions of the bill.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) said in a radio interview that it’s not likely going to be “total repeal,” and instead the GOP would seek “a series of fixes over the course of this bill getting enacted that enable us to possibly change and bend that cost curve down.”
The changes have cropped up since Democrats have been pressing Republicans to say what specifically they would repeal — framing it in political terms in preparation for the 2010 elections. The Democrats are asking if the GOP would roll back tax breaks for small business and expansion of insurance for children with preexisting conditions.
Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) bill to repeal health care reform has 15 Senate co-sponsors.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow did a roundup last night of the repeal back-down.
Late Update: Burr clarifies his remarks, says he’s still for repeal and gives himself some wiggle room by saying it’s unrealistic. The Raleigh News and Observer reported today:
“Somebody asked me about the likelihood of repeal,” Burr said after speaking to the Fuquay Varina Rotary Club. “I said that given that the president would be in office for two and half years it’s unlikely that he would” sign such a bill.
“But I said that was not going to stop us in the interim from making incremental changes that members of Congress thought we needed,” Burr said. “I think that is the basis of the discrepancy.”
