In the first major legislative action of 2016, the U.S. House on Wednesday evening gave final approval to a GOP plan that repeals significant chunks of the Obama health law, setting up an expected veto by President Obama later this month.
"ObamaCare has been like a bad dream for the America people," said Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
"This bill guts Obamacare's individual and employer mandates and repeals the costly Cadillac and medical device taxes," said Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA), detailing some of the GOP plan, which drew the scorn of Democrats.
"It's not a tough choice when it comes to taking away health care from 22 million people," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
The bill now goes to the President, who has promised to veto the plan.
The final vote was almost all along party lines:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
The only Democrat to vote for this plan was Rep. Colin Peterson of Minnesota.
The three Republicans voting against the bill were Rep. Robert Dold of Illinois, Rep. Richard Hanna of New York and Rep. John Katko of New York.
This was the first time that Republicans have been able to get a bill to the President's desk which repeals major provisions of the Obama health law, as the GOP used a special parliamentary process known as budget reconciliation, which does not allow for a filibuster in the Senate.
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