US Senate votes to defund Planned Parenthood

Openly welcoming a preordained veto, Republicans drove legislation to Senate passage Thursday aimed at crippling two of their favorite targets: President Barack Obama’s health care law and Planned Parenthood.

Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Republicans are “obsessed” with repealing Obamacare and pointed out that Senate Republicans have made 16 unsuccessful attempts to pass an Obamacare repeal already.

That same year, President Obama signed a bill repealing a provision of the act that expanded tax-reporting requirements for businesses. President Obama will veto the measure, and Senate Republicans lack the supermajority they need to overturn the veto.

Planned Parenthood receives $500 million per year in financial support from the U.S. government and performs or supports more than 300,000 abortions per year.

Democrats said they might offer amendments that, while doomed, could provide fodder for campaign ads next year. “They opposed the philosophy of it and they knew we were going to have a mess on our hands”, Sessions said. In the end, the bill moved forward as planned in the House, passing 240-189. These would most definitely include “defunding” Planned Parenthood and repealing (or more accurately crippling) the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Lee (R-UT), Cruz (R-TX), and Rubio (R-FL), the bill doesn’t go far enough, though there doesn’t seem like there’s much they can do about it. A full repeal is out of the question in this process since it’s relegated to parts of Obamacare that directly impact fiscal policy. Just as Democrats planned to bring amendments to the floor Thursday that would require Republicans to vote on gun control measures, the Planned Parenthood vote is mainly a way for senators to put their opinion on the public record and draw contrasts between the two parties.

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters December 1 the bill contains “a number of things that get pieced together in a way that produces 51 votes, but more importantly, in a way that lets us talk about the failures of Obamacare and how this system isn’t working”.

“So you’re assuming we aren’t going to re-vote these issues three or four times?” he asked.

GOP lawmakers suggested the bill could serve as a bridge to a new Republican health care law.

GOP leaders have had to tailor the reconciliation bill to get majority support from their own party.

“Rather than refighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal basic protections that provide security for the middle class, members of Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle-class families, create new jobs”, the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.

Kirk and Collins were the only Republicans to vote against the final bill.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, another 2016 Republican presidential contender, is a “likely supporter” of the Senate GOP effort, according to spokesman Kevin Bishop.