Republican efforts to scrap US President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform took a hit on Thursday when budget analysts said repeal would add billions of dollars to the federal budget deficit.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that overturning the reform signed by Obama last year would add about US$230 billion to the deficit by 2021 and result in 32 million fewer people receiving health insurance.
That was a blow to Republican campaign promises to slash the federal budget deficit.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the administration “strongly opposes” passage of the repeal legislation, known as H.R. 2, saying it would explode the deficit and eliminate fiscal savings in the healthcare reform bill.
“If the president were presented with H.R. 2, he would veto it,” the OMB said in a statement.
Democrats, who control the Senate despite losses in last year’s elections, promised to protect the healthcare law, Obama’s signature legislative victory.
“The Republicans have to understand that the healthcare bill is not going to be repealed,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters.
“We’re willing to work in any way that’s constructive in nature to improve the healthcare delivery system for our country,” he said. “But repealing healthcare? They should get a new lease on life and talk about something else.”
Ignoring that advice, House Republicans plowed ahead with their bill. The House Rules Committee, after a day-long hearing, approved rules for debating the bid to repeal the healthcare law on the House floor.
A House vote was expected yesterday on approving the rules, which would clear the way for next week’s debate and vote on the bill.
The law is designed to rein in medical costs, cover millions of uninsured people and reform insurance practices, including requiring coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions and other consumer protections.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives will vote on repealing the law next week in what will largely be a symbolic gesture, given the Senate’s likely opposition.
In a preliminary estimate, the CBO said repealing the healthcare overhaul would increase the federal budget deficit by roughly US$145 billion by 2019. That figure would rise to about US$230 billion by 2021, it said.
New House Speaker John Boehner, who has promised to bring down the US$1.3 trillion federal deficit, disputed the numbers.
“CBO is entitled to their opinion,” Boehner told reporters. “When you look at it dollar by dollar, you can tell that the numbers just don’t add up.”
Debate on repeal of the healthcare law, another core Republican promise during last year’s campaign, is scheduled to begin in the Republican-controlled House on Friday with a vote planned for next week.
Polls show public opinion on the law is split, but Republicans won control of the House last year after promising to repeal it.
They argue the law places job-killing burdens on business and is unconstitutional because it requires individuals to purchase health insurance if they are not already covered.
Democrats pounced on the report by the CBO, which analyzes legislation for its impact on government spending and revenues and develops forecasts of US economic performance.
Representative George Miller said it showed the Republicans’ “budget-busting repeal bill will kill jobs, raise costs and deny critical care to Americans who need it.”
Another key battle over healthcare reform could come by March when a temporary funding measure for the government runs out. Republicans balked at US$1 billion to start implementing the healthcare law as part of a bigger appropriations bill that Democrats failed to move last year.
Lawmakers opted instead for a stop-gap measure that keeps funding mostly at current levels through March 4.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema