Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was feeling pretty tricky when he worked a deal out with House Republicans to put both Obamacare repeal and Planned Parenthood defunding on President Obama's desk, without using a government shutdown to do it: a reconciliation bill that could bypass the usual 60 vote threshold in the Senate. The problem for McConnell has been finding the necessary 51 votes. So he thinks he has a solution—taking Planned Parenthood defunding out of the mix.
GOP leaders are mulling what to do with a House passed reconciliation bill that would both defund the women's health group and gut Obamacare by repealing both the employer mandate and a tax on high-end employer-sponsored health plans. The House passed the bill on a 240 to 189 vote in October.
But with Senate conservatives threatening to vote against the legislation because it would not fully repeal the Affordable Care Act, GOP leaders are considering dropping the Planned Parenthood language in order to attract the votes of moderates who are uneasy with cutting off all funds to Planned Parenthood.
"We need to make sure we get 51 votes to get Obamacare repealed," said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). "Anything that gets in the way of that I think at this point we'll have to take a look at."
Will that work? Maybe, but probably not. Out of the 54 Republicans, three—presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul—are adamant that they have to have total and complete repeal and at least another two, including Mike Lee, have expressed very broad hints that they agree. So say they go with the partial repeal the House sent them, and strip out Planned Parenthood defunding and manage to get 51 votes and then have to send it back to the House because that's not the bill the House sent them.
House maniacs have been pretty maniacal about defunding Planned Parenthood. They even have a special Benghazi-ish committee to try to make that happen. That's just going to piss the crazies off, some of whom are already regretting that they voted for less than a complete Obamacare repeal. So does it get out of the House again? When it's not total repeal AND doesn't defund Planned Parenthood? Not without an ugly, dysfunctional fight. As usual.
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