WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) — The Senate narrowly passed a budget bill to repeal core provisions of the Affordable Care Act and strip funding from Planned Parenthood for one year, approving legislation that is sure to be vetoed.
The legislation passed 52 to 47 and needs to be approved by the House before being sent to the White House, where President Obama has already vowed to veto it. Republicans hailed the bill as a political message and a fulfillment of promises to force Obama to veto his landmark healthcare reform law.
Democrats were unable to block the measure, brought to the floor under budget reconciliation rules that prevent a filibuster.
“For too long, Democrats did everything to prevent Congress from passing the type of legislation necessary to help these Americans who are hurting,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said. “Today, that ends.”
The bill guts sections of the healthcare law known as Obamacare, including the mandate for individual health insurance and for employers with more than 50 employees to buy it. It also eliminates federal subsidies to some 6 million low- and moderate-income Americans buying their own insurance.
The bill strips federal funding from Planned Parenthood in response to undercover videos purporting to show officials talking about selling tissue from aborted fetuses. Planned Parenthood has denied the allegations.
“It seems implausible that less than a week after a tragic shooting at the Planned Parenthood health center in Colorado Springs some in Washington chose politics over compassion,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Laguens referred to a shooting last Friday by a gunman that left three dead.
