With little suspense, the House on Tuesday is set to begin two days of debate on a Republican bill to repeal the Obama health law, as both parties ran through familiar arguments on the pros and cons of the reforms.
"Everybody knows where we stand on this," said House Rules Committee Chairman Rep David Dreier (R-CA), as he laid out plans for five hours of debate on the House floor over two days on the bill.
Democrats labeled the debate a waste of time, and trumpeted a very clear response from the White House.
"If the President is presented with H.R. 6079," said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), "he will veto it."
That veto threat won't have to be used, as Republicans are still well short of the votes they need in the Senate to repeal the health law; GOP leaders hope to change that by winning a majority in November.
Until then, they are again charging that the Obama health law will cause economic troubles for businesses big and small.
"Yes, this is about the economy, this is about jobs," said Rep. Tom Price (R-GA).
But Democrats were also ready with some snappy one-liners, as they sought to exploit what has been seen as a somewhat weak response to the recent Supreme Court decision on the health law by Republican Mitt Romney.
"I think this oughta be called the "RombamaCare," said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), stringing together a slightly different version of Romney and Obama from one used in the GOP race for the White House last year.
You might remember Tim Pawlenty labeling it "ObamneyCare" as he attacked the similarities of the Romney plan to the Obama reforms - especially on the subject of the individual mandate, which both share.
Still, both sides were deeply dug in.
"I do recognize that we are talking past each other," said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX).
Both parties will get to do more of that on Tuesday and Wednesday.
