CONGRESS

Ryan: Health-Care Repeal Unlikely Until 2013

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Updated: November 7, 2010 | 1:19 p.m.
November 7, 2010 | 10:16 a.m.

The prospective House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Republicans won’t be able to successfully repeal the health care law until 2013 at the earliest, when more Republicans occupy the Senate and perhaps the White House.

“In the meantime, this bill is such a fiscal and economic train wreck for the country and for health care itself,” Ryan said, telling Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace Republicans will do their best to undermine the law, including a potential court challenge.

Ryan called Tuesday’s results “an electoral repudiation” of the Democrats’ agenda, and promised a new direction including sharp spending cuts and heading off potential tax increases. He said the House GOP goal of 20 percent cuts in non-security discretionary spending next year is reasonable considering that, after factoring in the $814 billion 2009 stimulus package, such spending has increased 84 percent over the past two years.

When asked about potential cuts to popular programs like Head Start and the FBI highlighted by Democrats, Ryan called that a “Washington monument kind of strategy” to sow fear. He noted the Environmental Protection Agency budget, including stimulus spending, has seen a 124 percent increase since 2008.

Ryan said he didn’t think President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission would be able to reach a “grand bargain” on reining in entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, but there could be some smaller areas of agreement. The commission is supposed to report its recommendations by Dec. 1, but it will need 14 out of 18 votes to do so.

A pair of GOP governors also said Sunday they were doing what they could to block implementation of the law at the state level.

"I think Obamacare is one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in the modern history of the country. I'm doing everything I can in Minnesota to stop, delay or avoid its implementation in my state," Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said on CNN.

"Well, you've gone from a lot of people thinking this might be a good idea to every day people find out the cost and -- my wife's a nurse, father-in-law a physician -- they understand intuitively that what this is going to do, if it goes into place or if it goes into as it is written, we will be rationing health care," added Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry.

A pair of GOP governors also said Sunday they were doing what they could to block implementation of the law at the state level. "I think Obamacare is one of the worst pieces of legislation passed in the modern history of the country," Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I'm doing everything I can in Minnesota to stop, delay or avoid its implementation in my state."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry also said he'd continue to oppose the new health care law. "Well, you've gone from a lot of people thinking this might be a good idea to every day people find out the cost and -- my wife's a nurse, father-in-law a physician -- they understand intuitively that what this is going to do, if it goes into place or if it goes into as it is written, we will be rationing health care," the Texas Republican said on "State of the Union."

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