Groundhog Day: "ObamaCare" Repeal Fails in Senate
We didn't expect it to be close, and it wasn't. Sen. Mitch McConnell's, R-KY amendment that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act failed, getting 47 votes with 51 votes against it. (The vote was to waive budget requirements, which requires 60 ayes.) No Democrats voted for repeal.
The vote ended a month of kabuki politics, although it was a victory of sorts for the Tea Party and the GOP. After the House passed a repeal bill, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. said he wouldn't bring it to the floor. It came to the floor because McConnell attached it to the FAA funding bill, although he could have attached it to anything. And after he did, two days of intermittent debate ensued, with both parties playing the roles they'd played throughout the 2009 health care debate.
Democrats had new ammo. They accused the GOP of, in the words of Sen. Barbara Milkulski, D-Md., "playing to the Tea Party." They waved around a January CBO estimate of health care repeal like a bloody flag.
"$1.4 trillion!" said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, closing the debate for the Democrats. "Now, we've heard colleagues of all sides say we've got to get our debt and deficits are out of control, and one of our first acts here is to explode the debt!"
Republicans had new ammo. They pointed to polling that proved health care was unpopular, and citizens' complaints about what would happen to their care. They laughed off the CBO score.
"Only in Washington," said McConnell, "could you argue with a straight face that starting a new entitlement program will save money."
But the kabuki ended with a party-line vote. The only Democrat potentially wounded: Joe Manchin, who was not in the Senate for the initial vote, and who promised to fix the law when he got to Washington.
Democrats had new ammo. They accused the GOP of, in the words of Sen. Barbara Milkulski, D-Md., "playing to the Tea Party." They waved around a January CBO estimate of health care repeal like a bloody flag.
"$1.4 trillion!" said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, closing the debate for the Democrats. "Now, we've heard colleagues of all sides say we've got to get our debt and deficits are out of control, and one of our first acts here is to explode the debt!"
Republicans had new ammo. They pointed to polling that proved health care was unpopular, and citizens' complaints about what would happen to their care. They laughed off the CBO score.
"Only in Washington," said McConnell, "could you argue with a straight face that starting a new entitlement program will save money."
But the kabuki ended with a party-line vote. The only Democrat potentially wounded: Joe Manchin, who was not in the Senate for the initial vote, and who promised to fix the law when he got to Washington.
Source: http://www.slate.com/BLOGS/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/02/02/groundhog-day-obamacare-repeal-fails-in-senate.aspx
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