For Republicans, fight isn't over

WASHINGTON —

As jubilant Democrats prepared for President Obama to sign their landmark health-care legislation in a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, Republicans opened a campaign Monday to repeal the legislation and to use it as a weapon in this year's hotly contested midterm elections.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the committee chairmen signed the bill Monday, an official act before Obama's signature makes it the law of the land. The House voted for the measure 219-212 late Sunday night.

Obama plans to visit Iowa on Tuesday to kick off a partywide effort to sell a still-skeptical public on the benefits of his plan to reduce the ranks of the uninsured, provide more stability and security for those who have insurance, and begin slowing the growth of health-care costs.

Democrats called on Republicans to ease off on their attacks now that the legislation had passed.

"It is time to chill out, Republicans," said Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif. "Let this bill work. Let our constituents finally get health care."

But there were no signs of a cease-fire.

"This bill is terribly wrong for America and I call on you to join with me to challenge this bill in every way we can," said a fundraising letter from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is up for re-election in 2010 and facing a conservative GOP primary opponent.

"I assure you I am not quitting our fight. I believe we must repeal this bill immediately," he said.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said he would introduce a bill to repeal the health-care legislation even though the Republican minority does not have anywhere near the votes needed to pass it.

Senate Democrats said they would take up a budget reconciliation containing the final revisions to the health-care measure shortly after Obama signs the main bill Tuesday.

The reconciliation bill comes before the Senate on Tuesday under special rules that provide only 20 hours of debate but allow unlimited amendments at the end of the allotted time.

While 51 votes will be needed for passage and Democrats control 59 seats in the Senate, they expect to lose the votes of some of their conservatives.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who faces a difficult re-election campaign, said she'd oppose the measure, as did Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb.

Senate Republicans said they would employ every procedural maneuver available to derail the reconciliation bill, or at least knock out main provisions.

Under the "Byrd rule," named for master tactician Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., reconciliation measures must relate directly to the federal budget process.

One key Republican test centers on Social Security. The bill would delay a Senate-approved excise tax on high-end insurance policies by five years, until 2018. That delay, Republicans say, would encourage employers to continue offering more elaborate insurance policies in lieu of increasing wages. Because wages up to a certain level are subject to Social Security tax, the change is likely to mean less Social Security revenue.

Reconciliation isn't supposed to affect Social Security, Republicans contend. If Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin agrees, Democrats could need 60 votes to overturn his ruling — a difficult hurdle — and a failure to get those votes would effectively scuttle the reconciliation bill. Frumin dealt Republicans a setback Monday night, issuing informal guidance to Republicans that he doesn't agree with them that a proposed tax on high-end health-insurance plans violates budget rules, said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Minority Leader Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The White House negotiated changes to the tax with leaders of organized labor, who worried that it would hit too many middle-class workers who have robust union-sponsored benefits plans. House Democrats also disliked the tax, and if Senate Republicans succeed in blocking the changes it could create a major political headache for Obama.

Republicans said the so-called Cadillac plan tax has an impact on Social Security trust fund that violates the 1974 Budget Act.

McConnell, of Kentucky, quickly adopted a new rhetorical strategy Monday, portraying the changes sought by Democrats as revisions that would make the health-care law worse, not better.

"Democrat leaders now want us to take the bill that passed the Senate in December and that the House voted on last night and make the tax hikes even higher, the Medicare cuts even deeper," McConnell said in a floor speech. "They want us to endorse a raft of new sweetheart deals that were struck behind closed doors last week so this thing could limp over the finish line last night."

However, many of the changes in the reconciliation measure are intended to adjust provisions the Republicans themselves had criticized, like the so-called Cornhusker kickback that would provide extra Medicaid money for Nebraska.

Democrats will try to block every amendment — even small, politically appealing ones — because any change would force them to send the bill back to the House. The two chambers must approve identical bills.

Democrats were already trying to discredit GOP opposition to the bill by linking it to the angry outbursts that marked the House's two-day weekend debate as some demonstrators who swarmed Capitol Hill and threw bigoted invectives at black and gay Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans echoed the crowd's "Kill the Bill" chants from the Capitol balcony.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, denounced the racists comments as "reprehensible," but many House Republicans echoed the angry anti-government themes during floor debate on the legislation.

"If I was a moderate Republican, I'd be awfully concerned after seeing Congressman Boehner channeling the howling rage of the tea-party crowd outside the Capitol," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, a conservative Republican from Texas, revealed Monday that he was the lawmaker who shouted "baby killer" on the House floor Sunday night as Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., discussed abortion-related provisions in the health-care bill.

In a statement, Neugebauer, a third-term member of the House from Lubbock, said he got caught up in the passions of the moment and was not referring to Stupak personally but to the bill itself.

"In the heat and emotion of the debate, I exclaimed the phrase 'it's a baby killer' in reference to the agreement reached by the Democratic leadership," Neugebauer said. "I deeply regret that my actions were mistakenly interpreted as a direct reference to Congressman Stupak himself."

Around the country, reaction to the bill's passage was emotional, and in some cases violent.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., said her Tucson office was vandalized after her vote for the measure. A glass door was shattered, she said.

Authorities are trying to find out who threw bricks through windows and doors at two Democratic Party offices in western New York before Sunday's vote.

A brick was thrown through a window at Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls early Friday.

Additional information from The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers and Bloomberg News