The nation’s unemployment rate is still sky-high, and kids are being shot in their schools. So what important matter was the House of Representatives tending to Wednesday? Repealing President Barack Obama’s health-care reform in “a symbolic act,” as The New York Times put it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/health/policy/20cong.html?_r=1&hp
The new Republican majority in the House was making good on the GOP campaign promise that it would attempt to scuttle Obama’s overhaul of our health-care system. The vote on the repeal was 245 to 189, according to The Times, with three Democrats switching loyalty to vote with all 242 Republicans for the repeal.
This repeal effort is not going to get any traction, and the Republicans know it. Members of the Democratic-controlled Senate say they will not move on the repeal measure, which will basically derail it.
Even if the repeal doesn’t come to fruition, Republicans will make other efforts to hamstring health reform. For example, they have threatened to cut off federal funding needed to carry out reform’s various provisions.
All these GOP efforts are a waste of time, a folly, for our lawmakers in Washington.