The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the “Repeal of Obamacare Act.” And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president’s Affordable Care Act. A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday.
It’s the first legislative response from House Republicans after the Supreme Court upheld the law. But it is far from the first time the GOP has voted for repeal.
Over the past 18 months, the House has taken 30 floor votes to try to repeal, defund or dismantle the health care law. The first attempt came on Jan. 19, 2011 just two weeks after the GOP took control of the House.
On that day, Rep. Mike Pence,R-Ind., had this to say, “And today, House Republicans are going to stand with the American people and vote to repeal their government takeover of health care lock stock and barrel.”
And that’s exactly what House Republicans did, all 242 of them. They were joined by just three Democrats. But the measure languished in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
“Even in some bizarre universe where the Senate passed it, President Obama wouldn’t sign it into law,” says Sara Binder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert in legislative gridlock.
But the House’s efforts haven’t been necessarily pointless. Binder says votes like the one planned for later this week are all about scoring political points.
“Much of what we see during split party control of Congress, is this message politics, which is the parties taking their chamber and using it to pursue a policy agenda that appeals to their party base,” Binder says.
MORE: GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act : NPR.