Congressional Republicans today passed a bill to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood, marking the first time since taking the majority in 2010 that Republicans’ efforts to repeal the embattled healthcare law have delivered a repeal bill to the President.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), in this week’s Weekly Republican Address outlined the House’s repeal and defund plans, touted Republicans’ efforts saying, “We were sent to Congress to fight for the American people. They do not want their healthcare dictated to them by Washington.” Since coming to Congress, Hartzler has voted over 50 times to repeal the onerous healthcare law, only to have her efforts blocked by Democrats in the Senate.
Still the need to repeal Obamacare remains. “I continue to hear stories from Missourians of premiums going through the roof and deductibles doubling and tripling,” Hartzler added. “People are now facing thousands of dollars in fines for not having a policy because they can’t afford the inflated costs of Obamacare plans. This is just wrong. People should be allowed to make their own choices based on their needs. They do not need or want exaggerated mandates based on whatever Washington deems necessary.”
Beyond spelling the end for Obama’s signature healthcare tax, the bill goes further to strip federal tax dollars from abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.
“In the wake of the videos that surfaced showing the callous disregard for human life and the disturbing practices of Planned Parenthood officials such as harvesting and selling baby body parts, the calls have been stronger than ever for Congress to stop sending Americans’ tax dollars to this organization,” Hartzler emphasized. “This bill places a moratorium on taxpayer funding to abortion providers and redirects that money to community health centers which serve eight times more women patients than Planned Parenthood, and they provide much more comprehensive care.”
The Republicans’ efforts to repeal Obamacare will most likely face a veto from the President, but Hartzler asserted, “the President will have a choice, does he support the people and women’s health; or does he support Washington mandates and Planned Parenthood? The people now get to see where he stands.”
The House passed the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, which both repealed Obamacare and defunded Planned Parenthood, in late 2015. The Senate amended the House version, expanding the scope of the bill. The House passed this Senate version by a vote of 240-181.
The bill passed under what is called reconciliation-a process that allows a budgetary bill to pass the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes, thwarting efforts by Senate Democrats to filibuster the bill.
According to House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) the reconciliation measure “repeals the Obamacare coverage subsidies, credits, and the Medicaid expansion in 2018, and repeals the majority of the taxes in 2016. The measure defends life and promotes access to care by ending for one year taxpayer funding to abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, and investing in access to care through community health centers.”
2 comments:
More made up issues and double talk to distract the voters from the fact that Congress has not done anything meaningful for fifty years now. All they do is talk, vote on meaningless issues that will never get passed, take contributions and lie their way through elections. This simple minded twit probably thinks that she is important when the truth is, a bucket of warm spit has more on the ball than she does.
Big deal Obama won't sign it, so it's a waste of time and paper.
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