The Senate is voting in a few minutes on an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization (can you say "germane"?) to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They just voted down a 1099 repeal amendment by Sen. Levin, 44-54, and are considering a second one by Sen. Stabenow. After his vote, they will move to the Affordable Care Act repeal.
In today's debate, Sen. Barbara Mikulski got righteous on the Republicans, noting that they're breaking their campaign promise to "repeal and replace" by proposing nothing to replace the law. Why? Because "they have no ideas!"
Sen. Chuck Schumer says that they are not whipping the bill in the caucus, because almost all Dems will oppose repeal. Even Ben Nelson is "deeply opposed" to repeal, saying
"We need to improve the law, not throw it out," he said.
"Who wants to go backward and tell 220,000 Nebraskans they can’t have health insurance? Who wants to deny young adults coverage on their parents’ plan? Who wants to deny children health insurance because they have pre-existing medical conditions?" he asked.
Keep an eye on freshman Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) as the likeliest of Dem defectors. But this amendment will fail. Recognizing that inevitability, Sen. Bill Nelson made a sort of helpful suggestion, that instead of wasting time on repeal, the Senate pass a resolution to encourage the Supreme Court to just get on with considering the constitutionality of the law.
"Why don't we express our intent to have an expedited review by the Supreme Court?" Nelson said in the Senate Wednesday.
He said the passage of his bill "might prevent people from arguing back and forth for the next several years and everybody that's going to be affected would have an answer."
This would be a non-binding, sense of the Senate resolution, since they have no authority over the Supreme Court's docket, and so far seems to have gone over like a lead balloon. Asking Republicans to give up on this political football, particularly when they are likely to lose, is futile. But it's a nice thought.
Update: The Stabenow amendment repealing the 1099 tax provision in the Affordable Care Act passed 81-17. (You can read about this provision here). Now they move on to the ACA full repeal.
Sen. Kent Conrad has raised a budget point of order on the ACA repeal amendment because of the budgetary impact it will have on the debt.
....Which means that 60 or more Senators have to vote to waive that budget point of order and vote to repeal. Not going to happen.
Update 2: No Dem defections, a straight party line vote against repeal. Repeal fails 47-51, but of course it won't be the end of the fight against the ACA.
This was the last vote of the day.