McConnell: Obamacare repeal measure coming within weeks

An Obamacare repeal resolution will be the first item the Senate votes on next year, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, underscoring the GOP's commitment to repealing the law even as its replacement plan remains unclear.

McConnell told reporters that repealing Obamacare would be "the first item up in the new year," and the Kentucky Republican that he would like to "get Democratic cooperation" during the difficult process of replacing "a very, very controversial law."


Incoming Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had a simple reply to McConnell's plans for an early repeal of President Obama's signature health care overhaul: "Bring it on."

"We're certainly not gonna be part of this idea of repeal and put nothing in its place," Schumer told reporters. Citing an emerging GOP plan to delay a replacement for as long as three years, he warned that "saying they'll do it sometime down the road will cause huge calamity from one end of America to the other."

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Republican leader, said that replacing Obamacare would be a "step-by-step" endeavor focused on "more choices, more competition and more access to health care at a more affordable cost."

McConnell also said he is preparing for Democrats to leverage their options to delay consideration of Donald Trump's nominees, taking some measure of payback for the failure of Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland even though they changed the rules in 2013 to eliminate the filibuster of most presidential nominations.

"I'm sure they'll try to make it as difficult as possible," McConnell told reporters, adding that "we certainly intend to take advantage" of the 51-vote confirmation threshold Democrats established for most nominees.