Worried about the future of Obamacare? With the midterm elections now behind us and Republicans in control of both the Senate and House, many liberals and progressives are concerned.
And it’s not like House Republicans have already voted over 50 times, so far, to overturn Obamacare, and on Thursday Speaker Boehner promised to vote again to overturn the bill in 2015.
However, there is no reason to despair. Republicans cannot repeal or gut Obamacare, and here’s 4 reason why.
The Filibuster:
Republicans may have a majority in the Senate, but as they will likely end up with only 54 seats they don’t have the 60 votes needed to override a Democratic-led filibuster.
The Veto:
As we explained in our article about Ted Cruz’ impotence, Republicans can vote to repeal or gut Obamacare, but Obama has already promised to veto any such efforts. And don’t forget, Congress can only override a veto “with a two-thirds majority of the number of members present in both the Senate and the House when the override vote is taken.”
Impeachment:
As with the filibuster, Republicans also fall short with the numbers when it comes to impeachment.
As Washington Examiner points out, any attempt to impeach Obama would be doomed to failure:
Even if House Republicans gathered the 218 votes required to bring articles of impeachment — a far-fetched scenario — conviction in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote, or 67 votes. There are now 45 Republicans in the Senate. In 1999, when the GOP impeached Bill Clinton, Republicans held 55 Senate seats, and got 50 votes to convict the president. So impeachment will not succeed now, any more than it did then.
Republicans Like Obamacare:
As NBC News reported this morning, “Republicans actually like a lot about Obamacare. It’s great business for health insurance companies, which in turn give plenty of money to Republicans. Republicans have also always agreed that more Americans need to be covered by health insurance. They just haven’t always agreed on how to get there.”
“The five major national health insurers have all seen their stock price at least double — one has almost tripled — since the ACA was enacted, and they’ve all been raising their earnings estimates,” says Jay Angoff, who helped construct health reform at the Health and Human Services department before returning to private law firm Mehri & Skalet. “Republicans are not going to try to repeal a law that has been such a boon to insurers: They are still a Republican constituency group.”
It’s Too Late:
As many as 10 million people already have health insurance on the exchanges The Congressional Budget Office projects that 26 million people will buy health insurance on the exchanges by 2022 and that 12 million people will become newly eligible for Medicaid in the states that choose to expand their offerings by 2022. It would be difficult to take insurance away from that many people.
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