House approves rule for repeal vote; clears the way for Wednesday action

The Associated Press: "Confronting President Barack Obama, the new Republican-led House took a first step Friday toward a symbolic vote to repeal his landmark health care overhaul law." The 236-181 was a largely party line vote, is "unlikely to amount to more than a political message, since Democrats who still run the Senate have promised to block efforts to scrap the law and Obama has veto power." Today's vote "set the rules for a debate next week that will culminate in a simple up-or-down vote on rpeal. ... The House will also instruct several committees to come up with more modest replacement health care legislation, a process that could take months even if successful" (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/7).

Reuters: "The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to allow debate of legislation that would repeal the entire healthcare law President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats won last year. The House, casting its first major legislative vote of the new Congress that was sworn in this week, approved rules for debating the bill, which is a key procedural step before any legislation can move through the House" (Cowan and Dixon, 1/7).

The Christian Science Monitor: After promising a new era of openness and fiscal restraint, House Republicans veered from that standard on the first big vote of the new Congress: the repeal of health-care reform. The powerful Rules Committee on Thursday vetted dozens of amendments, mainly from Democrats, but rejected all on party-line votes, eliminating the possibility of changes to legislation on the floor and leaving Democrats crying foul" (Chaddock, 1/7).