WASHINGTON, D.C., November 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — The Senate GOP's plan to unite the party behind repealing Obamacare repeal and defunding Planned Parenthood is likely to slip into December — which may cause both efforts to fail, LifeSiteNews has learned today.
In light of Saturday's slaughter in Paris, “the refugee issue is eating up all the oxygen in the Senate this week,” a Senate GOP aide told LifeSiteNews. “Then next week is Thanksgiving and the week after that we have to get the omnibus done before the government shuts down on December 11th. I just don’t see where reconciliation fits in anywhere.”
Heritage Action's Dan Holler likewise said that “with mixed messages coming from Senate GOP leadership it is hard for folks to know exactly what to expect. That is a huge problem considering reconciliation was intended to send a very clear message about GOP priorities and set the stage for sweeping policy victories in 2017.”
For weeks, Republicans have made clear their intentions to simultaneously repeal portions of the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood in a reconciliation bill that would avoid a Democratic filibuster. However, that bill ran into political trouble when three conservative Senators running for president of the United States said the bill didn't go far enough to repeal the president's health care law, even as three pro-abortion Republican Senators said the defunding portion might cost GOP leaders their votes.
The Washington Post reported on Monday night that GOP leaders are considering dropping the Planned Parenthood provision to focus on repeal of the health care law. The report caused March for Life Action president Tom McClusky to say in a statement that dropping the Planned Parenthood provision “would be a clear slap in the face to the large majority of Americans who oppose taxpayers subsidizing abortionists.”
However, Laura Brooks, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, told LifeSiteNews that the pro-life rider is not being removed. “The [Planned Parenthood funding] provision…is in the bill,” she said in an e-mail. “As to the schedule, it has not been scheduled, but we will announce it as soon as it is.”
Senate Republican leaders can only afford to lose three of their 54 members in a reconciliation vote. The repeal and defund bill is expected to be vetoed by President Obama if it reaches his desk, as is a bill that includes one measure or the other.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is one of two presidential candidates (the other being Florida Sen. Marco Rubio) who opposes the reconciliation bill as it stands. A spokesperson for his Capitol Hill office told LifeSiteNews that the senator “has been on record strongly advocating that nothing less than the full repeal of Obamacare should be considered in any reconciliation bill,” and clarified that “he has also led the fight to defund Planned Parenthood and believes that under no circumstances should federal taxpayer dollars be going to Planned Parenthood.”
Now, a difficult vote count that could have pushed passage past Thanksgiving and compromised the Planned Parenthood defund provision may be exacerbated by the terrorist attacks on Saturday, and concerns about immigration, public safety, and national security.
A spokesperson for the Capitol Hill office of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC — considered a more centrist presidential candidate than the three who opposed the reconciliation bill as it stands — said that while he is “not sure which strategy the Senate will adopt…Senator Graham’s record is clear – he was one of the most vocal opponents of Obamacare and supports defunding Planned Parenthood.”
“In fact,” Kevin Bishop told LifeSiteNews, “Senator Graham has said if he had his way he would never send a budget to Capitol Hill which contains one penny of funding for Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, as long as we have President Obama in office, the chances of defunding Planned Parenthood or gutting Obamacare are extremely small.”
McClusky encouraged Republicans to “move quickly to set the record straight – they must decide whether they are a pro-life or pro-abortion party.”