Republican Senators Introduce Amendment To Stop GOP From Defunding Planned

Some Republicans say that maybe by holding these symbolic votes this week, they’ll satisfy their constituents, and that could ease passage of a government spending bill next week. “Do they meet with them?”

Others, like Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican, argued there was no way for the law to be sustained in the long run without GOP backing.

The vote also comes just a week after a shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado that left three people dead.

Though many Democrats are willing to scrap the unpopular tax, they blasted Senate Republicans for attempting to phase out the law’s expansion of Medicaid to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, who threatened to oppose the measure if it wasn’t strong enough. (Senate Republicans voted 54-46 to prevent Democrats from cutting PP’s funding.) They knew they didn’t have the supermajority votes to overrule the President’s certain veto, though, meaning that this was a deliberate set-up created to stoke conservative outrage in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

But that was an exception: More than 20 of the bills the House passed trying to repeal or alter the act died in the Senate.

The bill would also terminate the roughly $450 million yearly in federal dollars that go to Planned Parenthood, about a third of its budget. Federal funds can be used for abortions only in rare cases. Planned Parenthood provides services to 2.7 million people each year. The organization says it conducts such transactions legally.

“While politicians are right back at it attacking women’s health, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims who were killed or injured last week”, said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement before the vote.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said: “Democrats are focused on doing something to stop the gun violence, and we will force amendment votes to that end today”.

Senators rejected a pair of similar amendments that would have restored the Planned Parenthood money.

By a whopping 90-10 margin, senators voted to fully repeal Obamacare’s so-called “Cadillac tax” on generous health-insurance plans, displaying a bipartisan appetite to scrap the tax that takes effect in 2018, although Congress hasn’t found a way to replace $90 billion in anticipated revenue over the next decade. It’s a moment Republicans have hungered for since the landmark health law was passed five-and-a-half years ago with not one GOP vote. This year, they’ll have a special procedure at their disposal to get around that.

“It’s either repeal or nothing”, Sen.

“Enough is enough. Senate Democrats are not waiting one more day”. “I’ll take that to the polls and we’ll talk about it until the cows come home”.

Republicans argued voters were on their side.