After years of divided government, countless Republicans campaigned on a
promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
Yet when they took control of both chambers of Congress and the White
House in 2017-after six years that included more than fifty symbolic
votes and innumerable pledges-they failed to repeal the bulk of the law.
Pundits were shocked, and observers and political scientists alike were
stuck looking for an explanation. What made Obamacare so hard to repeal?
And in a larger sense: What explains why some laws are repealed, and yet
others endure in spite of considerable efforts? Are repeals different
from law-making or do they mirror one another? Why are repeals more
likely at some times than others? What theories of legislative behavior
and policymaking explain when repeals happen?
Congress in Reverse is the first book to attempt to answer these
questions. Jordan M. Ragusa and Nathaniel A. Birkhead examine when and
why existing statutes are successfully "undone," arguing that repeals
are most common when the parties are united on the issue-which was not
the case when it came to Obamacare for the Republican Party-and the
majority party wins control of Congress after a long stint in the
minority. By shifting focus from the making of laws to their un-making,
Congress in Reverse opens up a new arena for studying legislative
activity in Congress.
