Orrin Hatch: “I rise today to once again remind my Senate colleagues what is at stake with the procedural vote that took place today.…”

“I rise today to once again remind my Senate colleagues what is at stake with the procedural vote that took place today. The Senate voted on the motion to proceed to the House-passed budget reconciliation bill. The Senate will now start working in earnest to consider and, hopefully, pass legislation that would repeal and replace ObamaCare with a 2-year transition period, or other, specific replacement policies. That is a complicated undertaking to say the least. However, the first vote on the motion to proceed was relatively simple. While pundits and talking heads have already analyzed this particular vote to death, all of the talk boils down to a single question: Do Republicans want to repeal and replace ObamaCare? I don't want to belittle or discredit the concerns some of my colleagues have raised about the various legislative proposals that are out there. However, we won't be voting on any particular policy or proposal. On the contrary, the vote was simply to determine whether the Senate is actually going to consider the budget reconciliation bill. Members were not voting for or against any particular healthcare proposal; they were simply voting on whether the Senate will actually debate any such measure. That being the case, the vote was a simple one. Anyone who supports the larger effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare should be willing to at least debate the various proposals that have been put forward. That is the very definition of a no-brainer.…”