Senate Dems to Boehner: We'll block your repeal push

Posted at 1:33 PM ET, 01/ 3/2011

By Greg Sargent

Game on!

In the first official response from Dems to the House GOP plan to repeal health reform, Senate Democrats have penned a sharply worded letter to House Speaker John Boehner vowing that repeal is a dead letter in the Senate, the Associated Press reports.

Here's a copy of the letter itself, and it's well worth reading, because it provides the first clear glimpse of how Democrats will mount their political pushback against the GOP's repeal campaign. The crux of the argument is that repeal would deprive "middle class Americans" of a major reform, i.e., the closing of the Medicare "donut hole":

The new law provides that seniors will receive a 50-percent discount on the brand name drugs that they purchase while stuck in the "donut hole" and thus will save them thousands of dollars starting in 2011. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, seniors who have high prescription drug spending will save as much as $12,300 over the next 10 years and seniors with low drug costs will save an average of $2,400 over 10 years.

This is no minor reform. But almost as soon as it has taken effect, it is already in jeopardy.

The incoming House Republican majority that you lead has made the repeal of the federal health care law one of its chief goals. We urge you to consider the unintended consequences that the law's repeal would have on a number of popular consumer protections that help middle class Americans. The "donut hole" fix is just one measure that would be threatened by a repeal effort. Taking this benefit away from seniors would be irresponsible and reckless at a time when it is becoming harder and harder for seniors to afford a healthy retirement.

If House Republicans move forward with a repeal of the health care law that threatens consumer benefits like the "donut hole" fix, we will block it in the Senate. This proposal deserves a chance to work. It is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal health care.

This is another sign that Dems view the GOP's push for repeal of reform as an opportunity of sorts. The debate sparked by the GOP's repeal push, Dems hope, will allow Dems another chance to educate the public about what's actually in the health care law, by pointing to the specific provisions that would disappear in the unlikely event that the Affordable Care Act were somehow to get repealed.

One assumes Dems will make this case about other provisions in the law, such as the restrictions on discrimation against people with preexisting conditions. More when I learn it, but for now, this is moderately encouraging -- it suggests Dems are gearing up to mount an aggressive response centered on informing the public about what's in the law by emphasizing what repeal would take away from people.

By Greg Sargent  | January 3, 2011; 1:33 PM ET