A Republican effort in the House of Representatives to repeal parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is facing resistance from a portion of the party which is being pressured to oppose anything less than full repeal of the law.
Heritage Action for America, a campaign group affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, is telling Republicans that they should not support a bill that aims to kill key funding mechanisms of the PPACA, including the employer mandate, the individual mandate and the Cadillac Tax.
While House Republicans have voted numerous times to repeal the PPACA entirely, they are focusing on these provisions because they believe they can get them past a Democratic filibuster in the Senate by using a legislative tool called reconciliation, which is designed only for legislation affecting the budget.
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While most legislation that comes before the Senate can be blocked if 41 senators oppose bringing the bill up for a vote, reconciliation measures cannot be similarly blocked, meaning that they can be quickly passed with a simple majority.
But Heritage and some other conservative groups have argued that a more comprehensive repeal could be included in the reconciliation bill based on the rationale that a full repeal would curb the budget deficit, one of the requirements for any reconciliation bill.
Ironically, PPACA came into law through reconciliation as well, thanks in part to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office that the bill would reduce the deficit.
The debate over the attempted repeal is entirely symbolic, at least at this point. Whatever legislation Republicans pass will be vetoed by President Obama. Republicans have nowhere near the two-thirds majorities necessary in both houses to override a veto.
But the symbolic effect of Congress fully repealing the president's signature legislative accomplishment is one that conservative leaders are hungry for, particularly as they seek to influence the direction of the next speaker of the House. Those on the right have bristled at Rep. Paul Ryan's demand that the party's most conservative members be more cooperative with leadership.
"This bill will not restore Americans' health care freedom because it leaves the main pillars of the law in place," Heritage Action said in a statement provided to the Washington Times. "GOP leaders are violating an explicit promise made in the budget and walking back on their public commitment to fully repeal Obamacare."
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