Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) hosted a town hall meeting in Bartlett, TN this week, where she sought to assure the right-wing crowd that Republicans won’t become more “moderate” if they take back control of Congress. Underscoring this point, Blackburn said that one of the top priorities of Republicans would be to repeal health care reform:
Blackburn said the key to Republican conduct, should the GOP win a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, is in the Republican conference of House leaders where priorities of a GOP majority would be determined. She said the priority of the conference will be to repeal national health care reform.
This week, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) also told the National Review that the GOP agenda’s “first plank” this fall should be to “repeal Obamacare,” noting it was “very close to a universal position on the part of Republicans.” So far, all but seven of House Republicans have signed onto Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) repeal petition. Blackburn was one of the earliest signatories, getting on board on June 23.
The Republican leadership has been reluctant to release its agenda for the next Congress. This month on Bloomberg News, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that Republicans wouldn’t tell the public about their plans until September. While the GOP touts fiscal discipline and reducing the deficit, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) were recently unable to name any spending cuts they were considering. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), however, has said that in addition to repealing health care, Republicans should “issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that has gone on.”