Senate Parliamentarian Just Delivered Republicans A Giant Setback In Their Obamacare Repeal Effort
But make no mistake, this fight is far from over.
Republicans just hit another road bump in their effort to repeal Obamacare, and by extension take health insurance away from somewhere between 22 million and 32 million people.
According to the Senate parliamentarian, major portions of the GOP bill can not be passed using reconciliation will require 60 votes to pass.
The news from the parliamentarian means that Republicans will need to remove language about defunding Planned Parenthood and federal funding for abortion. That could cost Republicans votes from the conservative wing of the party.
Planned Parenthood issued a statement is “obvious” that the defunding provision would be a violation of the reconciliation rules.
“No amount of legislative sleight of hand will change the fact that the primary motivation here is to pursue a social agenda by targeting Planned Parenthood,” they said in a statement. said.
Republicans are trying to use the budget reconciliation process to repeal Obamacare because it only requires 51 votes, rather than the traditional 60 votes to pass legislation in the Senate.
Mitch McConnell has pledged that the Senate will vote next week, however, it is unclear whether the Senate will be voting on a repeal and replace plan or just a straight repeal of Obamacare.
[image via Twitter screenshot]
