House Republicans forced through a short-term government funding bill that delays Obamacare and permanently repeals a tax on medical devices, setting up their most dramatic face-off ever with President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.
The vote to delay Obamacare was 231-192, with two Republicans voting against the bill, while two Democrats supported it. The Republicans opposed to the bill were New York Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna, and the Democrats who supported the measure were North Carolina Rep. Mike McInytre and Utah Rep. Jim Matheson.
Continue ReadingThe move represents a complete about-face by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and the House Republican leadership. They wanted to shift the focus of health care and budgetary squabbles onto the debt ceiling fight, but conservative Republicans honed in on the government funding battle.
This strategy — forced upon Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) by the conservative rank-and-file — dramatically increased the chances of a government shutdown come Oct. 1.
(Government shutdown full coverage)
Boehner didn’t speak on the House floor during the debate before the amendments passed.
“The House has again passed a plan that reflects the American people’s desire to keep the government running and stop the president’s health care law,” Boehner said in a post-vote statement. Repealing the medical device tax will save jobs and delaying the president’s health care law for all Americans is only fair given the exemptions the White House has granted to big businesses and insurance companies.”
He added: “Now that the House has again acted, it’s up to the Senate to pass this bill without delay to stop a government shutdown.”
The House also passed a bill to fund U.S. troops in case of a shutdown. The chamber further adopted a “conscience clause” that postpones until 2015 an Obamacare requirement that employers cover birth control as part of their health-insurance packages. Their funding resolution keeps government open until Dec. 15 at a level of $986 billion.
Passage of the funding bill late Saturday night, following several hours of acrimonious debate the House, sets the stage for two days of political drama over whether the federal government will actually shut down on Oct. 1.
Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have already warned that the GOP proposal is unacceptable. Reid may not even bring back the Senate into session until Monday afternoon — just hours before a shutdown would begin — to reject the GOP proposal.
(PHOTOS: 17 government shutdowns)
“Today’s vote by House Republicans is pointless,” Reid said in a statement. “As I have said repeatedly, the Senate will reject any Republican attempt to force changes to the Affordable Care Act through a mandatory government funding bill or the debt ceiling. Furthermore, President Obama has stated that he would veto such measures if they ever reached his desk.”
On Friday, Senate Democrats passed a bill to fund the government until Nov. 15, but kept intact Obamacare.
The two chambers are on a collision course, a standoff that could lead to the first government shutdown since 1996.
(QUIZ: How well do you know the news: Shutdown edition)
This is just the first round of an entire fall filled with fiscal fights. In just days, Congress must figure out how to raise the debt ceiling — Congress must increase the national borrowing limit before Oct. 17. A discussion over government funding for the next fiscal year will also sprout up again before the new year.
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