Healthcare Debate Interrupted by News

Current events that are riveting America’s gaze are also diverting it from a top priority of congressional Republicans: repealing the national healthcare law.

The GOP has encountered some bad luck with timing, as searing events in Arizona and Egypt have pre-empted coverage of the repeal movement, The Caucus blog of The New York Times reports.

Last month the horrific Tucson shootings all but froze political debate in Washington just as newly empowered Republicans were readying their high-profile House vote to roll back the health care overhaul. And then it was President Obama who commanded attention with a heartfelt speech at a service for the shooting victims.

Wednesday’s Senate vote on health-care repeal also went up against a flare in the news cycle: While televised debate on the measure went forward as scheduled, headlines about violence against Egypt’s anti-government protestors were lighting up the rest of the screen.

But Republicans do have both chambers on record now on the question of healthcare repeal. They are confident the country’s attention will return soon enough to the ongoing battles over government's reach and the federal budget, and they are “eager for the fight as they seek to portray Mr. Obama and the Democrats as big-spending liberals,” The Caucus reports.