Tag Archives: House

Obama Vetoes Bill To Repeal Obamacare Provisions, Defund Planned Parenthood

President Obama vetoed a bill that would have repealed key provisions in the Affordable Care Act and defunded Planned Parenthood for one year on Friday.

The bill was sent to the president’s desk on Wednesday after it was passed by the House of Representatives, 240 to 181. Prior to the House’s vote, the bill was passed in the Senate on Dec. 3, 2015.

[RELATED: Senate Passes Bill Repealing Obamacare Provisions, Defunding Planned Parenthood] 

The vote in the House was largely along party lines, with Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) being the only Democrat to vote for the bill, and Reps. Bob Dold (R-Ill.), Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) and John Katko (R-N.Y.) the only Republicans to vote against it.

In response, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that although Congress passed the bill, it ultimately will have no effect on Obamacare.

“They’ve voted 60 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This is the first time that it has reached the president’s desk, but it has no impact,” Earnest said during a press conference Thursday.

HR 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015, sought to repeal Obamacare provisions including the requirement for most people to obtain healthcare coverage, the expansion of Medicaid, and the taxes imposed on income, insurance policies and medical devices that were required to fund Obamacare.

The bill would have also put an end to the nearly $450 million given to Planned Parenthood for at least one year. While the Senate did vote on over a dozen amendments to the bill, they rejected two amendments that would have given money to Planned Parenthood.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) noted the significance of such a bill reaching the President’s desk after five years of being struck down by Democrats. While he did not say what the Republicans would replace it with, he claimed that a Republican president in 2017 would seek out “a truly patient-centered healthcare system.”

“This budget reconciliation bill, which would reduce the federal deficit by a half trillion dollars, forces the president to confront the failures of Obamacare head on,” Ryan said. “But most importantly, it clears the path to repealing this law with a Republican president in 2017 and replacing it with a truly patient-centered health care system. We will not back down from this fight to defend the sanctity of life and make quality health care coverage achievable for all Americans.”

Senate Democrats Agree to DHS Funding Bill to Protect Obama’s Immigration Order

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 98-2 on a bill that would continue to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The bill, which comes three days before a partial DHS shutdown, has created controversy between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and was only agreed upon after Majority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell, removed provisions added by the House that would have reversed President Obama’s executive immigration action.

The Hill reported that the two votes against the bill were from Republican Senators James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Jeff Sessions of Alabama.

Senate Minority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid, called the bill a “clean Homeland Security funding substitute,” and said that Democrats in the Senate would only support it on the condition that it did not reverse Obama’s immigration order.

According to the Huffington Post, under the agreement presented by McConnell, the Senate will “resolve the DHS funding issue and then vote on a separate bill” from Republican Senator Susan Collins “to block Obama’s executive actions.

The Associated Press noted that the bill will now be sent to the House, where some conservatives called the new plan a “surrender to the White House.”

The Hill reported that several Republicans criticized this “clean” plan, and many of them vowed they would “not vote to fund agencies that would be carrying out Obama’s immigration order.”

As previously reported, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson addressed the possibility of a shutdown, while on Meet the Press on Sunday. While also commenting on threats made against the Mall of America by Islamist militants in Somalia, Johnson said it was “bizarre and absurd” that the U.S. government was having this discussion “in these challenging times.”

Following Johnson’s comments, DHS spokeswoman Marsha Catron released a statement admitting that the department was not “aware of any specific, credible plot against the Mall of America or any other domestic commercial shopping center.”

Rand Paul releases own State of the Union speech

After President Obama gave his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Senator Rand Paul released his own State of the Union speech online.

Paul starts by saying, “All is not well in America,” and from here he outlines what he thinks is wrong in the country.

The first thing Paul says is needed in America is “new leadership.” He does not mean get rid of the president, rather this is a call for a limit to the number of terms congressmen and other high ranking officials can serve. Currently, the U.S. has 11 people in the House or Senate who have served 35+ years as political leaders. Paul says by eliminating the limitless number of terms these leaders can have, new blood will flow into Washington, bringing fresh and new ideas.

As the president took time in his speech to outline his plan to continue to fight the war on poverty, Paul says he believes the war on poverty has failed. “Income inequality has worsened under this administration, and tonight, President Obama offers more of the same policies,” said Paul. “Policies which allow the poor to get poorer, and the rich to get richer…[Americans] don’t want a handout but a hand-up.”

Then, Paul takes a jab at Congress for their failure to balance the national budget, asking how Congress cannot balance a budget like every other American household? Paul says if Congress cannot balance the budget for one reason or another, an amendment should be added to make balancing the budget a mandatory act of Congress.

After mentioning an increase in the national debt, Paul calls out Hillary Clinton and what he calls her war in Libya. “Libya is now a jihadist wonderland,” says Paul, who then says we are more at risk for terrorist attacks “than ever before,” because of the actions in Libya.

Shortly afterward this mention, he says we need to not worry about the Middle East since war has been in the region for thousands of years, and instead we should worry about our issues here in the U.S.

Then in an odd instance, Paul seems to advocate for universal healthcare, but not President Obama’s version of healthcare. “It is a noble aspiration and a moral obligation to make sure our fellow man is provided for, that medical treatment is made available to all.”

While President Obama may have limited the choice of doctors available to some citizens, Paul says we should have the option to choose which doctor we want within our healthcare plan. “Everyone knows our healthcare system needed reforming, but it was the wrong prescription to choose more government instead of more consumer choice and competition. Obamacare restriction freedom…” Paul’s answer to fix the president’s healthcare plan, “Let’s try freedom again, it worked for over 200 years.”

A moment was also taken to propose a flat tax, as well as a cut to national spending.

In the last minutes of his speech, Paul rehashes many of his main talking points which have been seen in the news and heard in his many speeches. He wants to hold political leaders accountable for their actions, he asks how we can trust members of Congress since they only have a 10 percent approval rating, and then says the government has no right to collect our phone data and he backs this up with a mention of the Constitution.

Before ending, Paul says he will propose an audit of the Pentagon to “seek ways  to make our defense department more modern and efficient without breaking the bank.”

The speech does not seem to be a response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, rather it appears to be a gathering of all of Paul’s talking points over the last few years, compiled into one consistent speech. He doesn’t offer many counterpoints to the president’s speech, or alternatives to what the president said. Instead, he tries to strengthen his political stance on a few issues, and he attempts to reach the moderates who are upset with the state of politics in Washington.

As deadline nears, $1.1 trillion spending bill is agreed upon

To avoid a government shutdown, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed on a $1.1 trillion spending bill.

The new bill was passed in part to avoid the looming political struggle surrounding President Obama’s new immigration policy.  By agreeing on the new spending bill, this struggle will be delayed for at least another month.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada told the AP, “The federal government’s going to run out of money in two days. … We’ve been trying to work with Republican leaders to avoid a shutdown.”

Republicans are responsible for negotiating the new spending bill which implements a number of new policy measures.  Some of the new measures include, according to Reuters, the easing of environmental regulations as well as regulations aimed at financial derivative trading.  The bill is also adding funds to fight the Islamic State militants as well as funds to help fight the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

According to Politico, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is receiving a $35 million budget increase from the new bill, bringing their total budget to $250 million.  The Securities and Exchanges Commission is also receiving a budget increase of $150 million, putting their budget close to $1.5 billion.

While some measures are added or changed, many of the original policy measures from the fiscal 2015 domestic spending plan are not hampered or hindered.  This means all government agencies are being funded through September 2015, except for the Department of Homeland Security which is only funded to Feb. 27.

One measure which was excluded from the new bill was the federal terrorism insurance measure passed after 9/11.  The insurance was up for a six-year extension, but instead of being included in the spending bill, the extension will be considered on its own at a later date.

Nancy Pelosi has been reelected as the House minority leader

House Democrats have reportedly reelected Rep. Nancy Pelosi to the position of  minority leader for the next two years.

The election has been confirmed Tuesday by NBC News.

Sources told the Associated Press Pelosi, 74, was reelected in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats by a voice-vote.  Pelosi ran unopposed for her reelection, despite Democrats saying their party needs new blood to be elected to leadership positions.

The unrest in the Democratic Party comes after the party lost the Senate in the midterm elections, and many Democrats are saying the unpopularity of President Obama has turned many voters away from the party.

However, Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-NJ, said, “We need a full-blown discussion of who we are, where we’re going, what are our priorities. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority…It’s all of our faults, not just the leadership.”

Despite a call for new leadership, many Democrats still think Pelosi is a great leader and laud her for the financial assets she brings to the party.  Over the past two years, aides for Pelosi say she has raised about $101 million for Democrats in the House, while she appeared in over 115 cities for about 750 campaign events.

Pelosi, after her reelection addressed her fellow Democrats, saying, according to Politico, house Democrats are the “strongest team on the field.”  She also called for a refocusing of the party’s attention on “middle-class issues.”

Pelosi is not the only Democratic leader to retain their position.  Many sources are saying the entire Democratic leadership team will be reelected, many of whom are running unopposed as well.