House Speaker John A. Boehner refused to say Thursday whether the GOP will use a fast-track budget tool to target Obamacare, moments after the Supreme Court upheld the law’s subsidies in dozens of states.
Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said the Affordable Care Act is “broken” and should be eliminated, but he stopped short of saying the GOP has settled on budget reconciliation as the vehicle for repeal.
“There’s been no decision about what to use reconciliation for,” he said.
His comments stood in contrast to those of many Republicans who’ve said reconciliation should only be used to repeal Obamacare.
The tool would allow the GOP-led Congress to pass legislation on a simple majority vote in the Senate, although Mr. Obama would still wield his veto.
The speaker weighed in less than two hours after the justices said the administration lawfully paid out subsidies to customers in states that rely on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange.
Challengers in the lawsuit, known as King v. Burwell, said the law restricted subsidies to the handful of states that set up their own exchanges.
The GOP had been hoping to use a ruling against the administration as a way to move away from Obamacare, likely through reconciliation.
In addition, congressional budget scorekeepers recently said repeal would raise deficits, dealing a blow to efforts at wholesale repeal under the rules of reconciliation, which prizes deficit reduction.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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