House to vote today on health law repeal

In the GOP-led effort to repeal the health overhaul, the dynamics of the health reform debate return to center stage. This time, in what is viewed as a symbolic effort in the lower chamber, many reports indicate the tone was collegial.

NPR: GOP Launches Bid To Repeal Health Care Law
A key reason the House is voting on the repeal bill even though leaders know it's unlikely to even get a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate is that dozens of new Republican members got elected last November, nearly every one of them promising to fight to get rid of it. ... Democrats, meanwhile, let others do their most impassioned talking. They held an informal hearing featuring actual people who are benefitting from some of the parts of the law that have already taken effect (Rovner, 1/19).

Los Angeles Times: House Starts Healthcare Repeal Debate
With the Tucson shootings as a backdrop, the House began debating a Republican resolution Tuesday to repeal President Obama's health care overhaul. Both sides took pains to dial back the heated rhetoric that accompanied passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last year (Mascaro and Levey, 1/18).

The Washington Post: House Begins Debate On Health-Care Repeal With A Collegial Tone
This time around, there were no frightening warnings about "death panels" for the elderly or a "holocaust" of uninsured Americans. Returning to official business Tuesday for the time since the tragedy in Tucson, the House took up a contentious issue certain to test lawmakers' powers of restraint: health care reform (Murray and Aizenman, 1/19).

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Rejoin Health-Care Fray With Gusto - And An Eye On Civility
The House plunged back into an inflammatory debate on health care Tuesday, as lawmakers sought to convey their passions about the Obama administration's overhaul without overstepping the vague lines of civility drawn in the wake of the shootings in Arizona. Republicans have scheduled a repeal vote Wednesday as one of their first acts since winning a House majority. It isn't expected to succeed, because Democrats control the Senate and the White House, but the vote could set the stage for a more piecemeal remaking of the law (Bendavid, 1/19).

USA Today: House Democrats, GOP Debate Health Care Costs
Both Republicans and Democrats are focused on the financial impact of the health care law passed last March, but there is little agreement beyond that: Republicans say the law will add $701 billion to the deficit in its first 10 years, while Democrats say repealing it will add $230 billion to the deficit (Kennedy, 1/19).

McClatchy: Will It Last? Health Care Repeal Debate Takes On Civil Tone
The Republican-led House of Representatives will vote Wednesday to repeal the sweeping 2010 health care law, but the debate on repeal was far more civil — if still spirited and partisan — than the strident rhetoric that's colored Congress in recent years. The repeal effort is largely symbolic, as GOP lawmakers are eager to show their supporters that they're ready to act on campaign promises of last fall. … The tone of House debate was notably different from last year's health care brawl, which featured thousands of protesters chanting outside the Capitol and incited, in various parts of the nation, threats of violence against lawmakers, including Giffords (Lightman, 1/18).

The Associated Press: House To Vote On Repealing Obama's Health Care Law
The new Republican-led House is poised to deliver an emphatic thumbs-down to President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul, with no ready substitute of its own. The House vote Wednesday could turn out to be the high-water mark for repeal, a goal that energized conservative voters in the midterm elections and helped Republicans return to power in Congress. Democrats, who hung on to the Senate, have vowed to block the GOP drive (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/19).

The Arizona Republic: Health Law Still Divides Dems, GOP
Congressional Democrats and Republicans remained sharply divided on health care reform Tuesday as they debated a bill to repeal last year's health care overhaul. But they avoided personal attacks and metaphors of "killing" and acknowledged a public desire for greater cooperation in the wake of the Tucson-area shootings (Hansen, 1/19).