WASHINGTON — Republicans drove a budget through Congress on Friday that gives them an early victory in their crusade to scrap President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
The House used a near party-line 227-198 roll call to approve a budget that prevents Senate Democrats from derailing a future bill, thus far unwritten, annulling and reshaping Obama's landmark 2010 law. The budget, which won Senate approval early Thursday, does not need the president's signature.
"The 'Unaffordable' Care Act will soon be history!" President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Friday in a dig at the statute's name, the Affordable Care Act. Trump takes the presidential oath next Friday.
But the real work looms in coming months as the new administration and congressional Republicans write binding legislation to erase much of the health care law and replace it with a GOP version. Republicans still have internal divisions over what that would look like, though past GOP proposals have cut much of the existing law's federal spending and eased coverage requirements while relying more on tax benefits and letting states make decisions.
Friday's final vote was preceded by debate that saw hyperbole on both sides and underscored how the two parties have alternate-universe views of Obama's overhaul. Democrats praised it for extending coverage to tens of millions of Americans, helping families afford policies and seniors buy prescriptions, while Republicans focused on the rising premiums and deductibles and limited access to doctors and insurers that have plagued many.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the health care law was "so arrogant and so contrary to our founding principles" and had not delivered on Obama's promises to lower costs and provide more choice.
"We have to step in before things get worse. This is nothing short of a rescue mission," Ryan said.
"Our experimentation in Soviet-style central planning of our health care system has been an abject failure," said freshman Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Ryan was peddling "mythology" and said the GOP was moving toward making things worse for health care consumers.
"They want to cut benefits and run. They want to cut access and run," she said of Republicans.
"This is a sad day in the history of this country as Republicans begin the process of destroying health care in America," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who said the GOP has no replacement in hand.
"All you have is smoke and mirrors, and the American people are getting ready to get screwed," he said.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.