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“The Republicans have to understand that the healthcare bill is not going to be repealed,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters.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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese