Harry Reid: 'Enough of This Haranguing About Obamacare'

A new Senate showdown over Obamacare is brewing as the majority whip confirmed that a repeal bill will be coming to the floor this week — but without a full repeal, it may not get enough conservative support.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said this morning on the Senate floor that the Republican-led Senate “will keep a promise that we made to the American people: if they entrusted us with the leadership and the majority in the last election, we told them that we would vote to repeal Obamacare, which is the largest federal overreach in recent history.”

“When the president said if you like what you have, you can keep it – that was not true. Millions of Americans lost their preferred health insurance providers and the doctors that accepted that coverage. And instead of providing people with more affordable access to health care, millions of people faced higher premiums and higher deductibles,” Cornyn said. “Obamacare is a textbook example of how bigger government does not necessarily lead to more choices or real solutions.”

Cornyn said the Senate will be voting on a bill to “not only provide relief and more choices and the opportunity for the market to give people the health care they want at a price they can afford, but it also represents keeping a promise that we made to the American people.”

Republicans want to use budget reconciliation to limit debate and amendments on the measure to repeal select parts of Obamacare and partially defund Planned Parenthood.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as having “an obsession with the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare.”

“He can’t give up on this obsession,” Reid said on the floor this morning. “Regardless of what the Republican leader may claim, the Affordable Care Act continues to work.”

“Enough of this haranguing about Obamacare… I’ll have more to say about this, because I’m sure the Republican leader will continue to come and talk about what a great victory reconciliation is for Republicans. But it is an anomaly that we face every year, passing some things just to satisfy the haranguing about Obamacare. There is nothing substantive to it. It will pass and go to President Obama’s desk, and he will veto it in about ten seconds. And of course that veto will be sustained.”