House set for healthcare repeal vote

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. House of Representatives set up the parameters for considering an effort to repeal the healthcare law next week by approving rules of debate Friday.

The rules, approved on a 238-181 vote, allow for 7 hours of debate and don't allow for amendments when the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" is taken up Wednesday.

The rules also provide for consideration of a resolution instructing some House committees to report legislation that would replace the healthcare law.

Democrats criticized Republicans for not allowing amendments to the repeal bill, The Christian Science Monitor reported.

"There is nothing to amend to the repeal bill. Either we're going to wipe the slate clean and start fresh or we're not," Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., chairman of the Rules Committee, responded.

"Once that slate is completely wiped clean, we will be ready for this open and collaborative process to develop the real solutions we promised."

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the Republican leadership was rushing a bill to the floor that would, among other things, "repeal the rights of patients" and add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade as projected by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Republican leaders have rejected the CBO analysis, with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio saying during a news conference Thursday, "I do not believe that repealing the job-killing healthcare law will increase the deficit."