Tea Party Lawmakers Oppose Obamacare Repeal

The House Republican leadership wants to propose a new healthcare reform plan at the same time Congress repeals Obamacare, but tea party congressmen disagree. The conflict may make Republican efforts to overturn the new healthcare law more difficult, and it shows that enacting ideas advanced during the election campaign won’t always be easy, The Hill reports.

Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Steve King, R-Iowa, (pictured) argue that Republicans should repeal healthcare reform without including a proposal to take its place. “We need to have a full-scale repeal of Obamacare,” Bachmann, a founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, tells The Hill.

“From there …what we need to do is to have a debate on how are we going to offer the greatest-quality healthcare to the widest swath of people at the lowest possible price. We need to make that argument why free-market healthcare is a good thing.”