The House is pretty much finished dealing with substantive legislation until November’s elections, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor indicates.
The House GOP will spend that time sending “signal[s] that we’ve actually gotten with the reality here, that we have huge problems to deal with,” he told reporters Tuesday, according to
Politico. Republicans will show what they can accomplish if they gain control of the Senate and White House too. That’s the outcome Cantor expects in the elections.
Assuming the GOP does win a majority in the Senate, it can “fix the problem” of bulging deficits by avoiding the filibuster process, Cantor said. That would mean deploying the reconciliation process on tax bills, which would require only a simple Senate majority.
“I definitely think that is a challenge, because it depends how strong those 52 votes are in the Senate,” he said, answering a hypothetical question about a two-seat GOP Senate majority.
Republicans have learned through recent experience the importance of an open process, Cantor said. “You have to allow for all sides to have their say. And I think that what we would try to do is set up a reconciliation process to fix the problem.”
As for the healthcare reform law, if the Supreme Court overrules it, Republicans will have an alternative plan ready to go, Cantor said. “We are united if there’s not a full overturn of the law, that we will put a measure on the floor to totally repeal Obamacare,” he said. But the GOP would keep in place the ban on denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, Cantor said.
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