Republicans launch effort to repeal U.S. healthcare

Newly installed House Speaker John Boehner plans to begin debate on Republican legislation to repeal the healthcare law, which aimed to reduce U.S. medical costs and insure millions of people who currently can't afford coverage. The law also prevents insurance companies from refusing to cover patients with pre-existing conditions."I believe that this law will ruin the best healthcare system in the world. And what families and small businesses are worried about right now is how this will affect their livelihood," Boehner said as he released a report on the law on Thursday.

"The evidence is overwhelming that this healthcare law, by raising taxes, imposing new mandates and increasing uncertainty is already destroying jobs in our country. It will continue to destroy jobs in America unless we do something about it," he said.

Republicans won majority control of the House last November after promising to repeal the healthcare law and slash the U.S. deficit, now at around $1.3 trillion.

During the 2010 campaigns for Congress, Republicans said the healthcare law places too many job-killing burdens on business and is unconstitutional because it requires individuals to purchase health insurance if they are not already covered.

On the first full day of Republican control of the House, lawmakers took turns reading the Constitution out loud on the House floor for the first time in history.

A House committee began meeting on Thursday to put together rules governing the House floor debate of the healthcare law. That panel is expected to refuse to let Democrats offer amendments on the bill that could pass as soon as Jan. 12.

Republican Steve King said forcing Americans to buy health insurance gives the government extraordinary powers that must be prevented.

"I suggest that we pull Obamacare out by the roots, root and branch, lock, stock and barrel, eradicate it completely and leave not one vestige of its DNA left behind because it is a malignant tumor into the spirit of America's vitality and spirit of constitutionality. And if it's allowed to have any particle left, it will regrow again, it will metastasize like a tumor and grow back and it will consume the liberty and the vigor of the American people. We must pull it out by the roots. This Congress has been elected to do so," King said.

Repeal is unlikely to go far in the Senate, where Democrats still maintain control, although with a smaller majority.

"We're here today to say these reckless fiscal policies are dead on arrival here in the Senate," Democratic Senator Charles Shumer told reporters.

In a preliminary estimate of legislation the House is set to begin debating on Friday, the Congressional Budget Office said that repealing the Democrats' signature healthcare law would increase federal budget deficits by roughly $145 billion by the end of the decade, a slight revision of its earlier $143 billion.

That figure would rise to $230 billion by 2021, the CBO said.

Boehner also said on Thursday that any move to increase the United States' $14.3 trillion debt limit -- which sets a ceiling on the government's borrowing authority -- must be accompanied by spending cuts.

The Obama Administration projects that the debt limit will be reached toward the end of March and some fiscal conservatives have threatened to shut down the federal government if there are not concessions on spending.

"If the House is going to move an increase in the debt limit, I think we have a responsibility to cut spending and to make changes in the process by which we spend the American people's money. I think it would be irresponsible to try to deal with a debt limit without taking corrective action so that we're not facing this each and every year," Boehner said.