◼ Sen. John Barrasso has been waiting seven years for this. - David Drucker/Washington Examiner
Appointed to the Senate in June 2007, the Wyoming Republican has never served in the majority. That will change in a few weeks, when the GOP assumes command of the Senate for the first time in eight years. Like most Republicans and every GOP leader in Congress, Barrasso vows that his party will use this new opportunity to prove to the American people that it can govern responsibly and make their lives better.
...In an interview last week, Barrasso laid out a slew of policy priorities for the first six months of the new year, the period when the GOP will have its best chance of passing significant legislation. But the senator who delivers regular floor speeches to offer a “doctor’s second opinion on Obamacare” made clear that repealing and replacing the president’s healthcare law is his top priority....
Examiner: Would you favor using reconciliation — the Senate procedure that allows you to sidestep the filibuster — to go after anything in Obamacare that you could repeal according to whatever the rules will allow under that process? Medical device tax, restoring the 40-hour workweek, the individual mandate?... do you favor attacking Obamacare through reconciliation?
Barrasso: The answer’s yes.
