The White House scoffed Wednesday at congressional Republicans’ efforts to repeal ObamaCare.
Asked what Republicans accomplished by sending a repeal bill to the president’s desk for the first time, White House press secretary Josh Earnest offered a one-word answer.
“Nothing.”
After a brief pause, Earnest continued, noting that some Republican presidential candidates have called their party’s majority in Congress ineffective.
“In this case, they’re right,” he said.
Obama is expected to veto a legislative package as soon as today that rolls back the Affordable Care Act and strips federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The House passed the legislation on Wednesday with a mostly party-line vote of 240-181. GOP lawmakers succeeded in putting an ObamaCare repeal on the president’s desk for the first time in more than 60 tries by using a budget process called reconciliation, which allowed them to skirt a Senate filibuster.
Republicans are expected to hold a vote to override the president’s veto in the coming weeks, but they lack the two-thirds majority necessary to succeed.
Still, Republicans touted the vote as a victory, calling it an important step toward reversing the healthcare law if the party wins the White House in November.
“Now, is someone named Obama going to sign a bill into law repealing ObamaCare? Of course not,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday. “But we have now demonstrated that, if we elect a Republican president, we can use this same path to repeal ObamaCare without 60 votes in the Senate.”
The White House has repeatedly slammed efforts to reverse ObamaCare, saying that Congress should focus on policies supported by lawmakers in both parties.
“How abt passing something that actually helps Americans — like a bill to expand background checks,” Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough tweeted after the vote.