GOP vote advances Obama health law repeal

WASHINGTON -- Pressing an election-year point, Republicans pushed yet another bill through the House yesterday to repeal the nation's 2-year-old health care law, forcing Democrats to choose between President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement and a public persistently skeptical of its value.

The vote was 244-185, with five Democrats defecting to side with Republicans. By Republican count, it was the 33rd time in 18 months that the tea party-infused GOP majority has tried to eliminate, defund or otherwise scale back the program -- opponents scornfully call it "Obamacare" -- since Republicans took control of the House.

Repeal this year by Congress is doomed, however; the Democratic-controlled Senate will never agree. But Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam said before joining other Republicans in the vote: "Here's the good news. The voters get the last word in November. Stay tuned."

The House vote was not the only act of political theater during the day as campaign concerns increasingly crowded out bipartisan attempts at lawmaking in the Capitol.

Obama called on Congress to pass his proposal to extend tax cuts on all but the highest wage earners. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell offered to allow an immediate vote. "I can't see why Democrats wouldn't want to give him the chance" to sign the bill, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) countered by blocking an immediate vote. "We'll get to the tax issues. That way we'll be able to talk in more detail about Governor Romney's taxes," he said in a reference to Democratic attacks on the GOP candidate's overseas investment, the relatively low rate of income tax he is required to pay and his refusal thus far to release personal tax returns dating before 2010.

In the House, Republicans assailed the health care law as a job-killing threat. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said it was "making our economy worse, driving up costs and making it harder for small businesses to hire."

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said repeal would take away provisions that guarantee coverage for children with pre-existing medical conditions, reduce prescription drug costs for some seniors, and ensure total rebates of more than $1 billion this summer for policy holders.