CNN news 2011-01-25 加文本

cnn news 2011-01-25

Republican John Boehner is currently serving in the role as speaker of the House. And earlier this week, he oversaw a House vote to repeal President Obama's controversial health care reform law. This law is widely considered to be President Obama's biggest U.S. accomplishment while he was president. And House Republicans are working to come up with some replacement plans for the law. But as Samantha Hayes explains, the idea of repealing the existing law altogether might not go any further than it already has.

It may turn out to be largely symbolic, but House Republicans, along with three Democrats, voted Wednesday to repeal the health care law championed by President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress. The vote, 245 to 189, was mostly along party lines. It's the culmination of a campaign promise Republicans made ahead of the November midterm elections. The next step for the newly passed legislation is all but certain: the Senate likely won't even take it up. Earlier Wednesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor challenged his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, to consider the bill.

And leader Reid continues to say that he is not going to bring this up for a vote in the Senate. The American people deserve a full hearing. They deserve to see this legislation go to the Senate for a full vote.

A new cnn/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows 50 percent of Americans favor getting rid of the law. But for Democrats, defending the president's top domestic achievement is paramount.

I think what is picking up steam is the understanding that this repeal hurts the middle class of this country.

This is not about campaign promises. This is about real people experiencing real problems in real time that we need to address.

Most Republicans acknowledge that an outright repeal is highly unlikely and will instead focus on finding ways to cut funding for the law. For cnn Student News, I'm Samantha Hayes.