In a 240-181 vote, the House passed a reconciliation bill repealing ObamaCare and defunding Planned Parenthood, sending a bill that would defund Barack Obama’s signature legislation to his desk. Although this is the first time such a measure passed both chambers, Republicans in the House voted 50 times in the past to repeal ObamaCare. This bill faces certain veto, but it’s still a victory for Republicans, as it forces Obama to issue a veto days before his final State of the Union Address. Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) told reporters, “Any time that you make someone in elected office take a stance, it’s extremely valuable because the American people don’t watch too much until then. So [Obama] will absolutely say, ‘I refuse to understand that you as Americans are hurting because of this bill, that you’re losing your jobs, some of you have been cut back to part time … many of you now have lost the insurance that you’ve spent decades preparing for your family, and I, as the president of the United States, am going to tell you forget it — I’m going to veto it.’ I think that’s extraordinarily valuable in the political circumstances.”

Take The Patriot Post for an example of how ObamaCare is affecting small businesses. We just completed our year-end financial review and part of that was to see, again, that our health insurance premiums increased a whopping 25% last year — and that’s for a group of healthy professionals whose average age is a tick under 40. Next, the GOP must move beyond the critique of ObamaCare and work on a replacement to the health care boondoggle. Finally, after years of criticism, we’ll see just how well the Republican Party can lead by promoting policies steeped in conservative values.