WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 -- Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama and incoming Vice President Mike Pence visited Capitol Hill on the same morning for a direct opposite goal.
Obama rallied Congress Democrats on Wednesday to chart out a plan to save at least parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare and seen as his biggest domestic legacy, while Pence promised that repealing the law is "the first order of business" of the Donald Trump administration.
In a rare meeting with Democratic lawmakers, Obama called for a fight against any Republican effort to repeal the law. The Democrats announced they would refuse to work with Republicans if the latter insist in forging ahead the repeal with no replacement plan.
"We are telling Republicans if you are repealing, show us what you'll replace it with first and then we'll look at what you have and see what we can do," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
"We're united in our opposition to these Republican attempts to make America sick again," Schumer told reporters, co-opting Trump's well-known campaign slogan "Make America Great Again."
In a separate session, Pence asked House Republicans to get the repeal bill ready by Feb. 20, one month after Trump's inauguration.
"The president-elect and I, working with the leaders of the House and Senate, are determined to keep our promise to the American people and that all begins with repealing and replacing the failed policy of Obamacare, " Pence said in the House of Representatives.
"It needs to be done," said Pence.
Republicans have a 52-48 advantage in the Senate and a hefty 241-194 majority in the House. Once Trump takes oath on Jan. 20, Republicans will hold the White House and both chambers of Congress for the first time since early 2007.
However, since most legislation needs 60 votes in the Senate, Republicans have to garner bipartisan support to fulfil their major policy tasks including repealing and replacing the whole package of Obamacare.
In a bid to overcome the Democratic filibuster, Republican senators have been planning to unlock a fast-track budget process, known as "reconciliation", as the first step to dismantle the law, according to local media reports.
Under the rules of "reconciliation", there is no limit on repealing the items in the law that have a direct impact on the federal budget. Therefore, Republicans are expected to use the procedure to pass the repeal in the Senate with a simple majority, leaving Democratic senators few legislative options at their disposal.
However, this is technically not an official repeal and so far it is unclear how many items of Obamacare will be swiped away, when it would take effect and what the Republican plan for replacement is.
Likely targets include the law's tax penalties for people who don't obtain insurance, its requirement that many companies cover workers and tax increases on higher-earning individuals and many health care firms, said a Fox News report, noting that Republicans have little chance of quickly agreeing on replacement legislation.
A range of 18 months to three years, if not longer, has been under discussion, said the report.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump, who vowed to repeal the law during his campaign, warned Republican lawmakers not to let Democrats off the hook for a program he called a "disaster."
"Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases......" he tweeted as the new 115th Congress entered its second day.
"Massive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight - be careful!" he said on Twitter.
Against Trump's "disaster" vision, Democrats have prepared an aggressive public relations campaign to highlight how Obamacare has helped the 20 million Americans now covered because of the law, and the other benefits that they believe have occurred, such as better preventive care, according to local media reports.
Federal data show that since the general elections, enrolment in ObamaCare has risen, with 8.8 million Americans signing up so far for 2017, compared to 8.6 million at this point last year.
On Tuesday, Schumer, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced that Jan. 15 is a national "Our First Stand: Save Health Care" day of action for advocacy groups and Democrats to criticize Republicans for working to target the health care law.
"The more the people understand what's included in the Affordable Care Act and how they benefit from it, the more popular the program is, and the harder it is for Republicans to have political support for tearing it down," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday.
The war over Obamacare repeal is likely to consume the two mainstream U.S. parties for much of Trump's first year in the White House, analysts say.
