Posted on 09/01/2015 7:58:07 AM PDT by Jane Long
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell undercut threats by fellow Republicans to hold the budget process hostage in an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, saying conservatives do not have enough support in Congress to cut off the group now under fire from abortion opponents.
Instead, the Senate’s top Republican said he is focused on funding the federal government when U.S. lawmakers return next week and will work with President Barack Obama to avert a shutdown, which last paralyzed the government in 2013.
On the possibility of tying measures that kill funding of the women’s health group to federal spending bills, McConnell told Kentucky station WYMT: “We just don’t have the votes to get the outcome that we’d like.”
“The president has made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood, so that’s another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood.”
Some Republicans have threatened to push for cutting off the group’s federal support, perhaps tying that demand to several must-pass tax-and-spending measures set to come before Congress after its long August vacation.
Lawmakers will return to Washington on Sept. 8. Left unresolved, failure to pass those bills could push them to the brink of shutdown by as early as Oct. 1
Congress must pass legislation to fund the U.S. government before the current fiscal year ends Sept. 30, although it could pass a stopgap measure to keep the government operating at current spending levels.
While Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they must pass legislation that Obama, a Democrat, will sign in to law.
Planned Parenthood has been under fire since an anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress, recently started posting secretly recorded videos online. The center says the tapes show Planned Parenthood engaged in illegal sales of fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood counters that the videos were distorted and that it did nothing wrong.
The center Tuesday released a related video and, in a letter dated Aug. 31 to McConnell and other top lawmakers, urged Congress to continue investigating the group.
Republicans are pushing for increased military spending for fiscal year 2016, while Democrats want increased domestic spending. [ID:nL1N11118B]
“Our Democratic friends want to spend more on everything, we’d like to spend more on defense,” McConnell said on WYMT. And so there will be a kind of grand negotiation here in the fall.”
Yes, they are terrified of a govt “shutdown”. If it lasted long enough people would see how much better life is becoming.
I think McConnell fought long and hard on this, for about 2.3 seconds.
Yes, and YES!!!
Go Trump 2016....bringing *guts* back to the Republican party.
This is exactly how RINOs earned TRUMP.
Primary them all. If they are conservative as they claim, they will win. If they are lib, they won’t.
He’s such a chicken sh**. He wants to work with obama so that he can say that as Senate majority leader - he gets bills passed. What the stupid fool doesn’t realize is that he is passing DEM bills. We might as well have kept Harry Reid in power - same difference.
I agree. That’s likely why evil Midge won’t bring it up for a vote....they don’t want to be exposed as the vile creatures they are...he has the blood of our innocents on his hands. Same goes for ALL Pubbie *leadership*. Evil you-know-whats.
Lots of stupid fools. Many of them Freepers.
As long as McConnell and Boehner remain in their “leadership” positions the GOP has no credibility on anything. Seriously, these two clowns must be removed or there is simply no reason to vote GOP.
Give us the House and we'll...
Give us the Senate, too, and we'll...
Hey - we need the white house in addition to all of this because we can't do anything that might get us looked at cross-wise by the current guy...
I won't say McConnell is stupid. But he surely acts as though he firmly believes WE are!
That McConnell fellah is a real stud ain’t he.
Really Mitch???
Then I guess you all must SUPPORT Planned Parenthood and what they do - AGAINST the views, beliefs of YOUR CONSTITUENTS.
Time for tar and feathers... Etc...
If they can’t stand for defunding PP, what would they stand for?
Rhetorical question, we know it’s nothing but self interest.
I am up to post #19 and I have not seen any support for boner and his ilk. Please point me to that support in the first 18 posts.
bringing *guts* back to the Republican party
****************
Sorry but I am not optimistic that even Trump can do that. They will obstruct and resist him at every turn. The GOP has no interest whatsoever in advancing the conservative agenda. Think Tea Party. And look how it treats Ted Cruz. Trump will get the same treatment.
Primary them all is right. Most of them need to run as Dims, anyhow.
-Sid Blumenthal to HRC email
Weak. Dog crap. Losers.
bringing *guts* back to the Republican party
****************
Sorry but I am not optimistic that even Trump can do that. They will obstruct and resist him at every turn. The GOP has no interest whatsoever in advancing the conservative agenda. Think Tea Party. And look how it treats Ted Cruz. Trump will get the same treatment.
I’m willing to give Trump a chance. No one else is saying they’ll do the things Trump is saying he’ll do, to turn this mess around.
No one else is getting the wide-spread attention (media, etc.), nor the poll numbers and crowds, that Trump is getting.
I think a Trump/Cruz administration would go far in separating the sheep from the goats, in DC, and in getting things done.
I think that’s a lie isn’t it? They certainly control both houses and do not have to pass anything in the next budget IF they cared.
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