WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- A ranking U.S. House Republican said Sunday that President Obama's healthcare reform program would be scuttled in short order by the new Congress.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the effort to repeal the so-called Obamacare plan would begin before the president delivers his State of the Union speech and would likely have enough votes in the House to pass easily.
"We have 242 Republicans and there will be a significant number of Democrats, I think, that will join us," Upton said on "Fox News Sunday."
"You will remember when that vote passed in the House last March, it only passed by seven votes."
Upton, the upcoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also said Congress would derail any cap-and-trade plan aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. He said the Clean Air Act's requirements to consider the impact regulation would have on jobs and the economy were enough to warrant blocking cap-and-trade.
We knew that through cap-and-trade, we would see at least in the Midwest energy prices increase by as much as about 20 percent almost overnight," Upton said.
