Posted on 02/02/2011 6:37:55 PM PST by FTJM
The Democratic majority in the Senate late Wednesday voted down a GOP measure to repeal the health care law. The vote was 47-51, largely along party lines.
Senate Republicans, who are unified in their desire to repeal the bill, have known all year they had virtually no chance to pass a repeal measure. But Republicans campaigned in the midterm elections on a promise to "repeal and replace" the law, and they have been eager to show they are trying to follow through on their promise. The Republican-led House passed a repeal bill last month.
With a Democratic president and Republicans 13 votes short of the 60 votes they would need to break a filibuster in the Senate, the odds of the law being overturned legislatively in the next two years are essentially zero. It is possible that it will be overturned in the courts, however; two federal judges have deemed the law unconstitutional, while two have found it to be constitutional. The issue will likely end up before the Supreme Court.
In classic Senate fashion, the vote on the repeal measure was anything but straightforward. The repeal measure was actually in the form of an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, and the vote was actually on a "budget point of order" and needed 60 votes for passage.
"Voters in Missouri and nationwide sent a clear message last fall that they wanted their leaders in Washington to repeal and replace this law," Sen. Roy Blunt said in a statement following the vote. "I'm deeply disappointed that my colleagues across the aisle refused to listen to that clear message, and instead voted to defend this bill, which two federal courts have already deemed unconstitutional."
Another amendment to the health care repeal law did see passage, however - an amendment to repeal a provision that requires businesses to file a 1099 form with the IRS for every vendor with which they've done $600 worth of business or more. Both parties were sympathetic to complaints from the business community that the provision would create onerous paperwork requirements, and the amendment passed easily and with bipartisan support, 81-17.
The change is supported by the White House, and Democrats are pointing to it as evidence of their willingness to tweak - but not repeal - the law. The House last year failed to pass repeal of the 1099 provision despite bipartisan support, and must take it up this year before it can go to the president's desk.
“largely along party lines”
Masters of understatement.
“they have been eager to show they are trying to follow through on their promise”
And, it doesn’t hurt to get those Dem senators up for re-election in 2012 on the record as voting for an unconstitutional bill.
Every Democrat in the senate needs to be sent packing ASAP!
23 of them are up in 2012!
Send up a repeal next week and a week after that and the week after that WITH a promise that if they continue to defy the will of the American People they will NEVER be allowed to hold public office again!
Hey...vote to get these LIB anti-Americans on record but a federal judge ruled this BS bill unconstitutional. So for now, it is unconstitutional. Hold the FEDs who try to enforce this in contempt of court. We already know they are in contempt of the Citizens.
which 2 pansy-ass cowardly libs abstained from voting?
The usual suspects! A little more house cleaning is in order for 2012.
did miss piggy and cornhusker vote?
At least the went on record.
At least they went on record.
It will make a great campaign commercial against those 30+ Democrat senators up for reelection in 2012!........
Lieberman and Warner
The Republicans lost a big bargaining chip by allowing the 1099 provision to be repealed alone. Stupid strategy. Obamacare just became a lot more palatable to many people, and Republicans/Tea Partiers got nothing for it. Stupid.
Isn’t Lieberman retiring?
I bet one of them was Lisa Murkowski.
She is catching all sorts of flack lately about the lack of pork (earmarks) coming to Alaska. She won her election because she promised the natives and the unions that they would get a free Federal ride.
"Sometimes .... ya gotta flush twice to clean the bowl!"
The House better kill the 1099 provision. The idea is to kill the bill, not improve it. The Senate made a huge mistake by passing this amendment. It gave Obama another victory.
Interesting to see how it will play out now that this judge ruled it was unconstitutional.
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