GOP vows to defund, roll back healthcare bill

Congressional Republicans vowed Sunday to use their new majority in the House and their stronger position in the Senate to roll back the Obama administration's healthcare overhaul and press for sharp, rapid cuts in spending. "As part of our pledge, we said that we would bring up a vote to repeal health care early," Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday." He added, "That will happen before the president's State of the Union address," expected in late January. A flat-out repeal of the healthcare law would face a steep hurdle in the Senate, where Democrats will cling to a slim majority, but Mr. Upton said that House action would not be merely symbolic. "If we pass this bill with a sizable vote, and I think that we will, it will put enormous pressure on the Senate to do perhaps the same thing," he said. "But then, after that, we're going to go after this bill piece by piece."