As Politico’s Kim, Everett, and Haberkorn explain today, McConnell first talked the big national anti-choice groups into agreeing to make the reconciliation bill the vehicle for their “defund Planned Parenthood” push.
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The amendment, which is a part of a legislative effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act – President Barack Obama’s signature health care law – will nearly certainly be vetoed when the bill ends up in the Oval Office. The House has passed a similar bill, and differences between the two must be resolved before the legislation can go to the president.
Though destined for a swift veto, the GOP views the fast-track process as a test run for the real thing in 2017, when it hopes to scrap the health law with a Republican president and a slim majority in the Senate.
And with a general election less than a year away, votes like this provide politicians with concrete political talking points they can use to attract like-minded voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans have overwhelmed Democrats in a vote to end Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. Republicans say such a scenario would highlight GOP priorities for voters.
GOP leaders have had to tailor the reconciliation bill to get majority support from their own party.
“Are we doing this for partisan reasons?”
The overall GOP bill headed to the Senate would effectively defang the health law’s requirements for individual and employer-provided coverage by annulling the fines that enforce them. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced Thursday that they would be forcing votes on measures such as universal background checks, just one day after 14 people died in a massacre in Southern California. As Guy wrote in October, “a House Ways and Means Committee spokesman tells Townhall the legislation that is slated to be voted on this week, and against which Heritage Action is lobbying, represents “the best way to repeal the worst parts of the law”. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, who threatened to oppose the measure if it wasn’t strong enough.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced an amendment that would prevent the defunding of Planned Parenthood. Sen.
Some of the moderate Republicans up for re-election already tried to thread the needle on the budget during the Planned Parenthood debate.
“My concern is that this total prohibition of federal funding, including Medicaid funds, for Planned Parenthood would cause millions of women across the country to have to find new health care providers”, said Collins.
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Eleven GOP senators up for reelection in 2016 represent states that have expanded Medicaid, and that coverage would be phased out under the Republican proposal over the next two years.
