Leader Promises Senate Health Care Vote
McConnell is working on plan to force floor vote.
Compiled by staff
Published: Jan 21, 2011
For the record, the House voted to repeal last year's health care overhaul law by a vote of 245 to 189. All Republicans voted for the repeal bill. In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is preparing to force a vote on the issue. According to a GOP leadership aide, the Kentucky Republican is actively working on a plan to force a showdown on the Senate floor. The aide says such a confrontation is likely in the near future.
How McConnell will force a vote remains unclear. As Minority Leader, McConnell does not set the Senate schedule and Democrats will likely reject any effort to add the repeal to any other bill that is on the floor. Other options include a vote to suspend the rules in an effort to add the repeal as an amendment to another bill over Democratic objections. A 67-supermajority vote would be required.
Chief Deputy Whip Peter Welch, R-Vt., says Republicans are running against an abstraction. Obamacare abstractly means big government, but when you look behind the curtain and see that it's health care until you're 26 and health care for seniors, people say that's good, we want it. Democrats who voted against the bill last year largely reject the repeal measure as inappropriate.
Permalink: Click here
|