There They Go Again: House Republicans Set to Vote on Repealing Obamacare and Defunding Planned Parenthood
Here we go again. After failing to pass legislation to kill Obamacare, what? 50 times now? more? …House Republicans are getting set to send another doomed bill to the Senate, this time trying to defund both Obamacare and Planned Parenthood.
It’s very unlikely to pass the Senate, because many of these Senators are coming up for re-election and they can’t count on gerrymandered voting districts like the extremists in the House can, so they have to be cautious about going too far.
Democrats say Ayotte, Kirk and other endangered incumbents will pay a political price for supporting the House package, pointing to polls showing that only a minority of voters want to repeal ObamaCare.
“Their base is demanding bills to defend Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act. It’s a terrible position to put purple-state Republicans in. It’s a very easy example of the base pulling the party to the right at the expense of their 2016ers,” said a Democratic leadership aide.
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Democrats are expected to oppose the package unanimously. Sen. Joe Manchin (d-w.va.) has twice voted in recent months to defund Planned Parenthood, but he said he would vote against similar language if combined with an ObamaCare repeal.
“That’s bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit,” he said.