THE CONSERVATIVE REVIEW - July 10, 2012

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*-- House ready to repeal healthcare law again --*
WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives will vote again this week to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

As with previous votes, this week's action by the House to repeal President Obama's signature healthcare policy likely will go nowhere because the Democratic Senate won't consider it -- and if it does, Obama has veto power.

It would take a GOP trifecta of winning the White House and control of the Senate and retaining its majority in the House to overturn the Affordable Care Act or at least defund portions of it, CBS News reported Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that the individual mandate, the heart of the healthcare law, is constitutional because it is a tax.

Several political observers say Democrats will make inroads in the House, but not enough to pick up the 25 seats necessary to reach 218, a majority. Congressional oddsmaker Stuart Rothenberg predicted that "a Democratic gain in the single digits is most likely," CBS News said.

Turning to the Senate, Republicans need four seats to pick up a simple majority of 51, enough to begin the process of repealing as much of the law as possible through "the budget reconciliation process." Under this process, Republicans could repeal parts of the bill that affect the deficit, such as taxes and mandatory spending, with a simple majority.

Reconciliation, however, won't repeal the entire healthcare law. Regulations would likely remain and need 60 votes in the Senate for repeal since they don't affect the deficit or spending directly, CBS said. Even if a move -- provided Republicans make a clean sweep in the executive and legislative branches -- to excise all provisions affecting the deficit and spending is successful, insurance companies still would have ACA rules requiring them to extend and expand coverage without a guarantee of new customers required to buy insurance to offset costs.

Republicans said they would address the new rules by replacing parts of the healthcare law with their own legislation but have said little about which parts of the Affordable Care Act they would reinstate in the future, CBS News reported.

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