Battle over Obamacare repeal begins on partisan note

House Republicans on Wednesday began debating a plan to repeal Obamacare amid Democratic accusations that the GOP is jamming through a bill to fulfill a campaign pledge that will rip health care away from millions of Americans.

Just minutes after two House committees started debate, lawmakers began bickering about everything from the merits of striking the Affordable Care Act to how much time members should get to make opening statements to the president's tax returns and the cost of the health bill.

Both Republicans and Democrats are girding for debate on the GOP's American Health Care Act to last hours, if not days. Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said the debate could go "through the weekend," an ominous possibility Wednesday morning as Democrats required staff to read the text of the entire bill aloud.

The measure aims to fulfill the Republicans' long-standing commitment to undo Obamacare — shrinking and revamping the tax credits, gutting the individual mandate, rolling back the law's Medicaid expansion, and injecting more market-oriented features.

Under the expedited budget process GOP leaders are utilizing, this repeal bill can't undo all of Obamacare. The Trump administration is promising to dismantle other parts through executive actions and to add a second phase of legislation later.

Even so, the bill is facing opposition from conservatives who call it "Obamacare Lite" and from GOP moderates who want to do more to protect coverage, particularly for low-income people.

Democrats are united in opposing it — and the dynamic in the committees was partisan from the start. Republicans are pledging to stay aligned in order to get the bill through the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees in a day or two — even if questions remain about intraparty fights when it reaches the House floor.

Democrats plan to bring forward dozens of amendments to put political pressure on Republicans, for instance by underscoring Obamacare's protections for pre-existing conditions.

"I'm disappointed in this process," said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) as the Energy and Commerce session began. "It hasn't been transparent. … It's rushed. Members are squeezed in terms of their comments. This is a lousy process, in plain English."

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) tried to derail the Ways and Means Committee's markup of the repeal bill before it even started, calling on the committee to delay it until next week. He argued that the legislation hasn't been properly vetted by Congress or the public, ripping Republicans for keeping it "as secret as Donald Trump's tax returns."

"What this bill needs is extreme vetting — frankly, any vetting at all would be an improvement," he said.

Republicans are preparing for the fight.

"This bill — as Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price wrote to us yesterday — ‘aligns with the President's goal of rescuing Americans from the failures of the Affordable Care Act,'" Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has pledged that the GOP will have the votes to pass the bill when it comes to the House floor, likely in two or three weeks. "We're going through the inevitable growing pains of being an opposition party to becoming a governing party," Ryan told reporters Wednesday morning, referring to the transition from a Democratic White House to a Republican one. "And in being an opposition party, we had divided government."

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway guaranteed on Wednesday that the legislation will pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law.

Asked on Fox News whether she was willing to match Ryan's guarantee, Conway said she would readily do so. "The president is confident that the American Health Care Act will pass the House and the Senate and will become the law."

Huddle

But President Donald Trump should be prepared to "walk away from the frigging table" if he feels jammed by Congress on health care, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told POLITICO in an interview on Wednesday.

While Vice President Mike Pence and even Trump himself have said the White House fully backs a bill written by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ryan and committee leaders, Graham said Trump should be prepared to abandon the effort if he doesn't believe it's the right solution.

"Here's what I'd do if I were President Trump. Say: 'I've got a view of health care, tell me your views, I'm going to try to work to get to yes with as many people as I can, realizing almost no Democrats are going to help,'" Graham said. "But just say this: 'I'm not making a deal for a deal's sake.'"

Graham and other GOP senators including Tom Cotton of Arkansas have said the House is moving too quickly in an effort to pass the bill. McConnell is prepared to jam it through the Senate over the next month if it clears the House, to avoid allowing opposition to build among the left and right over an April recess.

Meanwhile, a third House panel on Wednesday advanced along party lines three health care bills separate from the GOP's Obamacare repeal effort, but the health care law was front and center during the debate at the House Education and the Workforce Committee.

"It's impossible to have a serious health care discussion in this committee while two other committees are simultaneously repealing the ACA," said Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the committee's top Democrat. "We are considering three bills that in no way build on the progress of the ACA or are any part of any comprehensive replacement."

Paul Demko, Adam Cancryn, Burgess Everett and Brianna Ehley contributed to this report.