Posted on 07/24/2015 11:17:28 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Next week, Senate Republicans could pass Obamacare repeal with a simple 51-vote majority as part of the long-term highway bill, according to Sen. Mike Lee.
The Utah Republican laid out the argument in a press release after party leaders set the sequencing of votes:
"The first Obamacare vote on Sunday will have a 60 vote threshold, and Democrats will likely block it," Lee continued. "But thanks to the sequencing of the votes we just locked in, Republicans will have the opportunity resurrect that Obamacare amendment later on in the process, and put it back before the Senate in a manner that only requires a simple-majority vote."
After cloture is reached on the Export-Import Bank amendment, senators will still be allowed to offer germane amendments to the highway bill, each of which would only require a simple-majority to pass. If the Chair rules that the Obamacare amendment is non-germane, Senate Rule 22 also allows any senator to appeal that ruling to the full Senate. At that point, a simple-majority of Senators would have the power to add the Obamacare repeal amendment to the highway bill.
If Lee is correct, then Democrats, in order to save Obamacare, would need to kill the highway bill — and thus their effort to restart the expired Export-Import Bank. (Unless, of course, Republicans bail Democrats out and sink the repeal efforts.)
Thanks Norm. In the end you may be proven right.
For both our sakes and the nation’s too, lets hope you aren’t.
Even if it passes the Senate (which it won’t) it will be vetoed by Obama.
But I’d like to thank the Senate for treating me a like drooling moron.
I WANT to be wrong. It would be a nice change. But so far I and others have been frighteningly accurate in predictions. Simply because we go with facts on the ground. There’s no sorcery or special sauce. Simple cause and effect logic is a stunning predictor.
Did you see this coming Norm?
I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams predicted Trump would go this all in as he has.
I sure didn’t see it coming.
If I had predicted his actions, I would have predicted him missing the mark terribly as Conservatism goes.
I would not have predicted 25% of what he’s done so far.
I’m talking all the issues he’s touched on, and has surprisingly agreed with us on.
Benghazi? McCain? Interesting...
at the last minute they need to add a amendment hat has Obama arrested and tried for treason. Okay maybe I am dreaming this while I am typing. bad night with mother with advanced Alzheimer’s Disease, so it will be another sleepless night!
Nope. My predictive abilities are pretty much limited to seeing the obvious outcomes of GOPDNC idiocy and lesser evil nonsense. Steve and I joke about seeing the things others WOULD not. Except it isn’t really a joke.People very often willfully blind themselves to the obvious.
I will say that whenever he made noises about running I predicted a complete cluster. Which -has- happened. Any time you put a bull in a china shop, things devolve into chaos. Which is also obvious. BUT, I never foresaw it benefiting us as it has “so far”.
But I maintain the man has a history and it behooves us all to understand it without rose colored glasses on.
Makes perfect political sense. The Senate knows Obama will veto the effort, and the 51 majority gives more room for party-line votes. The Senate can make noise (”we tried” by the GOP, “we tried to stop them” by the DEMs) but all for show, in light of the veto.
Norm, do you really think we aren’t aware of the nature of Trump?
Do you really think we’re all going to be so all-in for him that we won’t notice if he swerves off track, and we’ll continue to back him anyway? What the heck Norm?
You know, there are a number of you folks who really seem to think we’re all a bunch of idiots. This save us from ourselves mindset is really annoying. You’re not more brilliant than the rest of us. You see the man just as we do, and yet we’re self-assured enough to realize we will abandon him when the time comes. You honestly don’t know that?
You seem to be in the camp that says no matter what he does, no good can come of him.
You have admitted he’s already helped us move ahead, but it seems as if grudgingly acknowledged. Come on guy, have some faith in us. We didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday.
Some of us have been around discussing these issues for more than two weeks. Good grief.
This kind of thinking is how we ended up with Romney.
I agree with your thoughts about Trump, but Cruz going to school off Donald for two weeks? Dude, it's Donald who's been a conservative for about two weeks....Cruz knew from day one Obama was bad news, and that Obama Care was bad news...took Trump til very recently to figure that out. Yeah, Trump has been great and he deserves credit, but wow....your history is out of sync.
Meaningless symbolism.
Yeah, in a lot of cases....I think there is a ton of unawareness.....maybe not you, but yes, a lot of willful ignorance on this topic.
i talk to people and it seems to me that there are a lot of very smart people who nevertheless favor obamacare out of altruism. these same people, however, seem to have no clear concept of economics, and in particular, no clear knowledge of the national debt problem and its aftereffects.
these people, i believe, are the people who keep obamacare afloat when it would otherwise sink.
further, i believe democrats know this and rely on the ignorance of economics by these people.
the way to discuss the situation with these people, i think, is to bring up greece. that is, is what is happening to greece after years of racking up debt for social programs ok? and then follow up with the question of whether it would be ok for the USA too, since the USA is apparently going in the same direction. so far, not a single liberal i have met dares answer these questions. they do not have a response because they are totally ignorant of economics? it would seem to me that an honest person would stop and think why anyone should favor obamacare if the end unintended consequence is runaway inflation, stagnation, and/or bank closures. it is because imho people have been brainwashed in our public schools to expect that the answer to all of our problems is more government spending, without regard to economic consequences.
You are giving far too much credit to Trump for what Cruz has done recently. ....Cruz has always been a stand-up Conservative and never shied from voicing his beliefs.
I imagine Cruz is very pleased to find someone else (Trump) to join him and Lee in trying to convert the Congress toward his views. .....There are Conservative folks like Louie Gohmert in the House that are pushing similar beliefs.
There is much in what you say.
Millions are being played for fools because they don’t know how to think and see through all the smoke and mirrors - education, media and government largess have rendered them incapable of understanding what is being (has been) done to take away what makes America strong (the source of their freedom).
It’ll be vetoed.
Why are we doing this again?
We need a conservative in the Oval Office. Or, alternatively, enough rats to override the man child’s veto.
Sadly this is just another show vote, because Obama would simply veto it and they wouldn’t have the votes to override it.
To stop it, they need to unfund it—and the GOP doesn’t have the balls to do that.
Cruz simply knows he has to be careful not to alienate Trump’s voters—because they are also his voters.
Cruz isn’t stupid, and he has no chance unless Trump implodes early enough for his voters to regroup around Cruz.
Now, a good chunk of Trump’s voters are also Reagan Democrats, and there’s no evidence that Cruz will be able to reel those voters in for himself.
The private sector would take it from there and Obamacare would wither.
That’s so apropos, it’s scary.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.