WASHINGTON, D.C., September 27, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate scramble to find a way to stop ObamaCare before the clock runs out next week, their latest strategy is to attach a one-year moratorium on the unpopular law to a bill Democrats consider a “must-pass” – legislation to increase the federal debt limit so that the U.S. can borrow more money to make payments on its $17 trillion in loans.
But more time isn’t the only thing the GOP is bargaining for in the debt ceiling standoff. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that at least one Congressman urged GOP leaders to include a ban on late-term abortions in a bill raising the debt limit.
The proposal was reportedly a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, similar to the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that has already passed the House. It has yet to be introduced in the Senate, although Marco Rubio signaled that he might introduce the 20-week ban in late July.
By attaching the abortion legislation to the debt limit bill, the House GOP could effectively force a floor vote on the bill, instead of letting the Senate's pro-abortion Democratic leadership kill it in committee.
The Post’s anonymous sources did not identify the Congressman who suggested the provision.
But ultimately, it was one of the few that didn’t make the cut.
Instead, Republicans in the House attached numerous other items from the GOP wish list to the debt limit resolution Wednesday, including tax reform deadlines, hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts, approval for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, more offshore oil drilling, and environmental and industrial deregulation.
A group of 72 House Republicans urged House Speaker John Boehner to repeal the controversial HHS mandate as another amendment to the debt ceiling bill, or to the Fiscal Year 2014 Continuing Resolution.
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The controversial regulation forces all employers to provide full insurance coverage for contraception, sterilizations, and abortion-causing drugs without a co-pay, regardless of the employer's religious beliefs against financing such practices.
But even if the House passes the debt limit legislation with the GOP wish list intact, it is unlikely the additional provisions will survive a Senate vote. The Democratic-controlled Senate will probably strip the bill of the Republicans’ additions and send it back for another House vote – leaving the GOP with the unhappy choice of passing the debt-limit increase as is, or being held responsible for a possible U.S. default.
Even in the unlikely event that the Senate does allow a few of the Republicans’ wish list measures through, it’s almost certain they will not get past President Obama’s veto pen. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that Obama would “absolutely not” negotiate with House Republicans over ObamaCare, abortion, or anything else.
Obama, Carney said, will not “engage in an attempt by Republicans to extort from him what they could not get through the legislative process, what they could not get at the ballot box, what they could not get at the Supreme Court.”