Despite all the evidence that they are on the wrong side of the voters in continuing to fight the Affordable Care Act, that's just what Republicans are doing. The omnibus spending bill is probably the last chance for the Obamacare stabilization bill that Mitch McConnell promised Maine Sen. Susan Collins would get a vote back when he was trying to get her to support the tax scam. Yeah, remember all that? We do, Sen. Collins.
Anway, Republicans are not going to just let Obamacare be stabilized, no matter what the voters want. And certainly not without plenty of poison. In this case, abortion—because of course it's abortion.
Republicans are insisting that a rule known as the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal money from being used to fund abortion, be applied to new funds aimed at lowering ObamaCare premiums.
Democrats are pushing back, arguing this would represent an expansion of the Hyde Amendment to a new area of funding, preventing the government from offering money to any insurance plan that offered abortion coverage at all.
"Make no mistake: Republicans are saying they will only agree to lower Americans' health costs if they can strip comprehensive health coverage away from millions of women at the same time," Henry Connelly, a spokesman for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), said in a statement Tuesday. "Republicans are not asking to reiterate Hyde, they are trying to radically expand it to control how private insurers use private dollars."
There is no limit to what Republicans will do to either destroy this law, or take away women's right to choose.