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This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris.
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And I'm Melissa Block.
House Republicans can't force the Senate to act on their bill to repeal the Health Care Law. But now that they're in the majority they can call hearings, lots of them, to rake the measure over the coals. And today, they began the process of doing just that.
NPR's Julie Rovner reports.
JULIE ROVNER: Dave Camp is the new Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. He made it clear that today's session on the economic impact of the health law would be just the first of many.
Representative DAVE CAMP (R-MI, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee): It's my intention to give the American people and employers, both large and small, the opportunity they did not have when this law was being written, to testify in an open hearing about the impact this law will have on them.
ROVNER: Meanwhile, over at the House Budget Committee, Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was making it clear he still thinks the whole law simply has to go.
Representative PAUL RYAN (R-WI, Chairman, Budget Committee): We must reject the notion that a centrally-planned, bureaucratically run health care system can produce more favorable outcomes than the one managed by doctors and patients.
ROVNER: Ryan's hearing featured someone Republicans had been hoping to get at a congressional witness table for months: Richard Foster, the chief actuary of the Medicare program. Republicans elevated Foster to fame last year after he predicted the law would boost overall health spending. Foster repeated that prediction this morning.
Mr. RICHARD FOSTER (Chief Actuary, Medicare): We've estimated that the Affordable Care Act would cause an increase in total national health expenditures in the U.S. The total over the 2010 to 2019 period is estimated to be $311 billion.
ROVNER: Over at the other hearing, Austan Goolsbee was trying to explain how spending could go up even while health care inflation was slowing down. He's President Obama's top economic advisor.
Dr. AUSTAN GOOLSBEE (Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers): The amount of total health spending is different than trying to control health care cost inflation.
ROVNER: Goolsbee says it's because more people will have coverage but they won't need more expensive emergency room care. In fact, insisted Goolsbee, not only will the law help slow health spending, it could also help reduce the unemployment rate.
Dr. GOOLSBEE: I think the evidence suggests that the Affordable Care Act may have even a significant positive impact on the job market.
ROVNER: Republicans, however, like Wally Herger of California, found that claim difficult to swallow.
Representative WALLY HERGER (Republican, California): It's one thing to come up with academic arguments for why a particular policy will be good for job creation. It's another thing to have those results actually demonstrated in the real world.
ROVNER: And to prove their point, the GOP brought a couple of real-world small business owners who said they'd been hurt by the law. Scott Womack of Indiana owns a dozen IHOP restaurants. He says starting in 2014, he'll be smacked with having to provide health insurance to all his workers or pay a penalty.
Mr. SCOTT WOMACK (President, Womack Restaurants and IHOP Franchisee): It's not just a marginal cost increase. This is a huge new expense. And at $7,000 annually per employee, it is beyond our ability to pay.
ROVNER: Meanwhile, Joe Olivo, a New Jersey print shop owner, said he won't be able to cope with new paperwork rules.
Mr. JOE OLIVO (President, Perfect Printing): The resources involved to put in place, as far as software programs and calculating and managing receipts are just much more than I have the resources to do.
ROVNER: But both Democrats and Republicans agree that the small business paperwork requirements should be repealed.
Tomorrow, Senate Democrats will launch their own set of hearings, to try to underscore the need for the health law.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.