On Thursday, the Senate passed a bill (52-47) that would repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood for one year. Because of a procedure called budget reconciliation, the bill only needed 50, as opposed to the usual 60, votes to past. Although, as expected, the majority of votes came from Republicans, 2 Democrats voted for the bill and 2 Republican senators voted against the bill. Many moderate Republicans are upset with the outcome. The Senate has voted before on repealing parts/all of Obamacare, but this is the first time with the Planned Parenthood addition. Now, the bill goes to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass because a different version of this bill was passed in the House in October. The White House has said that President Obama will veto the bill, and since Republicans do not hold a two thirds majority, they cannot override his veto. This is very well known, but there is still purpose to passing this bill, even though it is futile. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) said that this bill was passed in order to display the “big division in this country, and a lot of us don’t like it, and the American people don’t like it,” making the passing of the bill into a statement of Congress’s opinions. Also, this vote clearly declares that if a Republican wins the 2016 presidential election, Obamacare will be repealed.
Questions:
How do you feel about this? Should Obamacare be repealed? Should Planned Parenthood be defunded?
In light of the recent shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado, do you think this is insensitive? How do you think this violent event impacted the voting?
Sources:
http://theslot.jezebel.com/useless-good-for-nothing-senate-votes-to-defund-planne-1746011955(warning: this post is extremely biased and has some insensitive language)
