A repeal Obamacare bill was the first to see the floor in the 113th Congress, and, not surprisingly, it was Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann who filed it.
If the repeal Obamacare bill seems familiar, that’s because it is. The 112th Congress tried 33 times to repeal the landmark legislation crafted by Obama and passed by Congress, and every time the bills were shot down in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The continued insistence of repealing Obamacare by House Republicans has drawn harsh criticism, The Huffington Post notes . Whether related to the endless introduction of repeal Obamacare bills or not, this Congress was rated as the least productive of all time. Though Congress is able to handle more than one item of business at a time, the focus on repealing Obamacare became a trademark of that unproductive Congress.
As Think Progress notes, the efforts to pass a repeal Obamacare bill have come at the expense of other, more dire priorities. The 112th Congress has failed to pass a relief package for Hurricane Sandy victims, drawing criticism from the left and right alike. Republicans in Congress have also been criticized for failing to re-authorize the Violence Against Women Act .
The tide could be turning against efforts to repeal Obamacare, The Huffington Post noted:
“But while Bachmann is still keen on undoing President Barack Obama’s health care reform package, some Republicans and GOP governors have begun to accept the law of the land, at least in pieces. And the public appears to be cooling on the idea of repealing the measure. A survey taken in the wake of Obama’s November reelection found that only a third of Americans were in favor of eliminating the law, a record low.”
If continued, the repeal Obamacare bills could also create a drain on Congressional resources, CBS News notes. In July, the news service found that the then-33 tries to repeal Obamacare took up a total of 80 hours in Congress, or two full work weeks. The total cost of the repeal Obamacare attempts — $48 million.
