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.”
And Trump will gain more today...
GOPe strikes again ping :(
Can’t McSlimey at least make a fight of it
Yes, likely! He’s called for defunding the monstrous PP.
Let’s surrender before the battle.
This is what lesser evil/no matter what idiocy gets America. More dead babies.
Congrats liberal Freepers. More on your necks.
Bring it up for a vote anyway. Let Yahweh see where each one stands.
We wish! When was the last time Yertle the Turtle Midge, Bonehead or ANY GOPe made a fight of anything that benefits the left/0blama?
SSDD with Yertle the Dim Loving Turtle.
Don’t even try...
Not enough votes to stop the slaughter of the innocents
I suppose Herod could have used the same excuse when he met his maker
That’s probably what they’re afraid of. They can run, but they can’t hide...from Him.
Here’s what I’m thinking:
WE JUST HAVE TO ELECT MORE CONSERVATIVES!
That might be a solution.
No one should be shocked. He campaigned on working with Obama. Obama wants dead babies. Even the stupidest person can do that math.
Change “votes” to “balls” and you’ll be correct.
Reason #1,742 why the Stupid Party deserves to die.
Go, Trump!
They lack much more than votes.
Not according to a lot of Freepers. They have consistently voted liberal GOP no matter what and tell me regularly I’m an evil purist. Those that think like that ALL get the evil purist treatment. So clearly on a supposedly conservative website, it’s only logical to back liberal pols.
Makes complete sense...
If the pubbies don’t have the votes to defund PP, they need to force the opponents of defunding to vote for Planned Parenthood. These people need to be identified on the record so they can be primaried.
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