The Senate voted for the second time Monday to kill yet another Republican counter-offer that would reform ObamaCare while funding the government, kicking the bill back to the House with only a couple hours left on the clock before the government begins to shut down.
Lawmakers are facing a midnight deadline to reach an agreement on a government spending bill. Senate Democrats vow they will not accept any proposal that targets ObamaCare.
The latest House bill would have delayed the law’s individual mandate while prohibiting lawmakers, their staff and top administration officials from getting government subsidies for their health care.
The Senate voted 54-46 along party lines to reject it.
“The American people don’t want a shutdown and neither do I,” Boehner said. “…Here we find ourselves in this moment dealing with a aw that’s causing unknown consequences and unknown damage to the American people and our economy. And that issue is ObamaCare. Those who don’t recall, it was passed in the middle of the night. 2,300 pages that no one ever read and all types of consequences for the American people, our constituents.”
But Democrats just can’t seem to bring themselves to support popular reforms, as if it has become a point they simply want to make to teach Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Marco Rubio a point. Representative Stenny Hoyer refuted the speaker’s remarks, dismissing them as nothing but pure politics and rhetoric.
“Tonight is about the continuing destructive obsession that our Republican friends have and their refusal to recognize there was an election just some months ago…As a result, you are about to shut down the government. You an get up here and say over and over and over again, we don’t want to shut down the government. But your actions, Mr. Speaker, their actions belile their words.”
The bill is for a fourth time now, in House Republican lawmakers hands, as Speaker John Boehner works to strike a deal with a deeply divided government. House sources tell FOX Business any action on a new CR would involve at least the following three steps:
- -A briefing with House GOP to decide how to proceed with a new proposal
- -A Rules Committee meeting to write the new rule to handle the new proposal on the floor
- -New debate and a vote on the fourth CR of this fiscal battle
It remains to be seen whether the Senate will reconvene to again table the fourth round of House amendments later in the night.
