Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said repealing the healthcare law “will be the first item up in the new year,” but Democrats are pledging to play no role in replacing it.
Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Lawmakers are expected to quickly take up a budget resolution in which they can include a provision to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The measure can pass with just 51 votes, which would circumvent a 40-vote Democratic filibuster.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the incoming Democratic minority leader, said the GOP has no replacement plan.
“Bring it on,” Schumer said after McConnell announced the move.
Schumer said Republicans “don’t know what do to,” about replacing the law and compared the party’s replacement effort to “the dog that caught the bus.”
A repeal of the law without an immediate replacement, Schumer warned, “will cause huge calamity from one end of America to another.”
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is retiring, said there is “not a chance” Democrats will help replace the law.
But Republicans said Tuesday they have an outline ready to author a new health insurance measure that includes expanding choice and competition and increasing flexibility for small businesses that purchase insurance.
“What we intend to do by replacing Obamacare is start to repeal the damage that it has done to families and businesses,” Rep. John Thune, R-S.D., said. “And then we will go about the process of replacing it in a step-by-step way, the Obamacare provisions we think have caused the most damage.”
