House GOP opens health care debate

WASHINGTON - The House GOP Tuesday opened the health care debate, take two - the kinder but still combative and partisan edition.

Less than a year after Democrats used their control of Congress to enact the massive health care overhaul, Republicans Tuesday used their new House majority to begin seven hours of debate to revisit the law and then repeal it in a vote expected this afternoon.

Few lawmakers on either side of the aisle have any illusions that the law actually will be repealed - Democrats still control the Senate and White House, and vow to block it.

President Barack Obama said he was open to tweaking, but not repealing, the law known as the Affordable Care Act.

"I'm willing and eager to work with both Democrats and Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act," he said. "But we can't go backward."

House members approached the repeal bill as the opening of a debate aimed at the 2012 election, and a test of their retooled messages in a new political atmosphere.

The Tucson shooting rampage and calls for civil discourse created that climate change, and postponed the debate a week.

Lawmakers refrained from some of the harsh personal attacks heard in last year's health care debate. That didn't stop most, however, from savaging the health care law.

Much of the debate centered on the Congressional Budget Office estimate that the law would lower the deficit but that the repeal would add $230 billion in debt over the next decade, projections the GOP rejected.

Republicans - many of them seeking to fulfill campaign promises - went on the attack, charging the law would kill jobs, run up costs, and harm seniors and businesses.

"Obamacare is a budget buster," said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Minn.), as his aide put up a chart with a rising cost curve. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) warned the law's "most dangerous" flaw is that it could lead to "government control" and "loss of freedoms."

Democrats set out to do a better job defining and defending their landmark law, by stressing its savings and telling stories of how it helps real people.

Rep. Chris Von Hollen (D-Md.) called the attempt to repeal the health care law a "historic mistake," and stressed the law would lower the deficit.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said 40 million uninsured people will be helped by the law, and asked if the repeal "is about politics or whether this is about people."

Meanwhile, the federal government Tuesday filed an appeal in Richmond, Va., to overturn a lower-court ruling that struck down the health care law's mandate that everyone buy health insurance.