Senate Republicans Fail To Repeal Health Care Bill

Although every single Republican in the House-- all 242 of them + 3 reactionary Blue Dogs (Dan Boren, Mike McIntyre and Mike Ross)-- voted to repeal the healthcare legislation, before it could actually be repealed it would have had to first pass the Senate and then be signed by President Obama. Yesterday, the Senate turned down Miss McConnell's amendment to repeal it, S.Amdt 13 on S. 223. Miss got every single one of the anti-family corporate shills in his caucus to vote for repeal but not even quasi-Republicans Ben Nelson and Joe Manchin went along with them and it failed. Lieberman (I-CT) and Mark Warner (D-VA) weren't around for the vote. It failed 47-51.

While Republicans continued to hide health care benefits from their constituents (particularly in regard to seniors, small businesses, young adults, children, Americans with preexisting conditions and employment) on behalf of their corporate donors, they now vow to try to kill the bill by defunding it piece by piece.

Republicans have acknowledged their goal with the vote was to get Democrats on record as defending a law that remains deeply unpopular with large swaths of the public. Twenty-three Senate Democrats are up for re-election in 2012, and many of them face tough races.

"I think the American people understand fully this issue and they know for sure where Democrats and Republicans are," McConnell said after the vote.

Republicans have vowed to pursue their attacks on the law until the next election, when they hope to have enough Senate votes to repeal it. In the meantime, they’ve announced plans to withhold funding for its implementation and have introduced multiple bills to repeal bits and pieces, such as the individual mandate or the Medicare payment board.


On Tuesday, Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Barasso (R-Wyo.) introduced legislation that would allow states to opt out of many provisions of the law, including its individual mandate. The goal, Graham acknowledged, is to make reform fail so lawmakers “would have to replace it with something that made more sense.”

Graham vowed to bring up the provision as often as possible.

“If we're going to vote on naming a post office this year, you're going to be voting on this,” Graham said. “We're going to bring this up every time we can.”

The fate of the healthcare law seems likely to be decided by the Supreme Court. Two judges have ruled the bill’s mandate that people have insurance, which would require many consumers to buy insurance, is unconstitutional. Two other judges have ruled it passes constitutional muster.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) on Wednesday called for his colleagues to support a resolution fast-tracking legal challenges to the Supreme Court.

“The vote to repeal healthcare is largely symbolic because the Supreme Court is going to have to be the one to decide this matter,” Nelson said Wednesday. “We ought to do the right thing and ask the high court to rule quickly so we don't keep arguing over this for the next several years.”

The Obama administration, however, has said it would appeal Monday's decision to an appeals court where it feels confident it will prevail.