In the wake of the shooting spree in Arizona, Democrats pressed Republicans to change the name of their health care repeal bill — the bluntly titled “Repealing the Job Killing Health Health Care Law Act.”
No luck. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says they’re sticking with that name.
As first reported by Greg Sargent, that vote is scheduled for next week. In a statement sent my way, Cantor spox Brad Dayspring confirms, “As the White House noted, it is important for Congress to get back to work, and to that end we will resume thoughtful consideration of the health care bill next week. Americans have legitimate concerns about the cost of the new health care law and its effect on the ability to grow jobs in our country. It is our expectation that the debate will continue to focus on those substantive policy differences surrounding the new law.”
House Dems had the same understanding as they entered a caucus meeting Wednesday morning.
After the Giffords shooting touched off a heated debate over the use of violent political rhetoric, the schedule and name of the health care repeal bill fell into doubt.
“A good place to start a more civil dialog would be for my Republican colleagues in the House to change the name of the bill they have introduced to repeal health care reform,” wrote Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) in the Huffington Post. “Don’t get me wrong — I’m not suggesting that the name of that one piece of legislation somehow led to the horror of this weekend — but is it really necessary to put the word ‘killing’ in the title of a major piece of legislation?”
Changing the name of the bill would require another act of Congress. Last week, before the Arizona shootings, the House passed a rule governing debate on the repeal bill — changing the name would require revisiting that rule. Democrats have called the notion of repealing health care reform a “job killer,” and though they’re not using that in the title of any legislation, we’ll see if they plan to refrain from the same rhetoric.
