The veto threat came via a Statement of Administration Policy:
The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 596. The House has now attempted to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act more than 50 times. H.R. 596 would take away critical benefits and health care coverage from hard‑working middle class families. In addition to taking away Americans’ health care security, the bill would increase the deficit, remove policies that have helped slow health care cost growth and improve the quality of care patients receive, and detract from the work the Congress could be doing to further job creation and economic growth.
The Affordable Care Act is not only working, it is fully integrated into an improved American health care system. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions is a thing of the past. And under the Affordable Care Act, we’ve seen the slowest growth in health care prices in nearly 50 years, benefiting all Americans.
Repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean that Health Insurance Marketplaces where millions of Americans now compare private insurance plans and get tax credits to purchase them would shut down. Tax credits for small business owners who cover their employees would be taken away. States would lose substantial Federal assistance under Medicaid to provide coverage for the neediest Americans. According to the most recent projections by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), 27 million Americans are expected to gain coverage due to the law. Repeal will likely result in most of these individuals remaining uninsured or losing their insurance altogether. An estimated 10 million Americans gained coverage during 2014, and repealing the law would erase most of these coverage gains and strip these Americans of the security and peace of mind they now have.
Further, repealing the health care law would have implications far beyond Americans who have or will gain insurance.Reforms that strengthen Medicare’s long-term finances also would be repealed. Seniors also would lose the more generous prescription drug coverage provided under the health care law, as well as free preventive care, and Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund would become insolvent years earlier. Moreover, by repealing these reforms to Medicare and other reforms that encourage doctors and hospitals to provide efficient, high-quality care, the legislation would drive up costs and worsen patient care throughout our health care system.
CBO has previously estimated that repealing the
health care law would add more than $100 billion to the deficit over the
ten years ending in 2022, and more than $1 trillion in the following
decade. This not only hurts the Government: it hurts State and local
economies, job creation, and the Nation’s long-term prosperity.
The last thing the Congress should do is refight old
political battles and take a massive step backward by repealing basic
protections that provide security for the middle class. Right now, the
Congress needs to work together to focus on the economy, helping
middle-class families, and creating jobs.
If the President were presented with H.R. 596, he would veto it.
Statements of administration policy are usually
pretty dry, but one can almost see the anger in this veto threat. The
White House is clearly tired of watching Congressional Republicans waste
time on something that is never going to happen while this president is
in office. Trying to repeal the ACA has become John Boehner’s go to
move when he needs to distract his fellow repugicans from the poor job
that he is doing as the Speaker of the House.
House repugicans aren’t going to spend their time
funding Homeland Security or coming up with their own plan to cut taxes
for the middle-class. Instead, they are going to engage in political
grandstanding. What Boehner and company will never realize is that their
attacks on Obamacare aren’t symbolic of their opposition to the law.
Every single House vote to repeal the ACA is another symbol everything
that is wrong with repugicans in Congress.
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