The House of Representatives has passed yet another bill to repeal key segments of Obamacare and I've quite honestly lost track of how many times they've done so.
House members voted 240-189 to pass the bill, which would repeal the Affordable Care Act's requirement for all Americans to obtain health insurance and for employers to offer it to their workers. It also would end a tax on medical devices.
The Flying Monkey Caucus should be elated, but the bill doesn't go far enough for some.
Three conservative Republicans — Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida — said they will oppose it because it does not repeal Obamacare outright.
Republicans have attempted craft a 'filibuster-proof' bill by using reconciliation, a process that does not require a 60 vote majority to advance.
The problem, however, is that Senate Republicans may not have enough votes to pass their own bill with a simple majority of 51 following the departure of Senators Cruz, Rubio, and Lee.
The Three Stooges intended to support a full repeal of Obamacare but you cannot use reconciliation to pass legislation that isn't directly related to the budget. Because those are the rules, congressional Republicans have chosen to move forward with a slimmed down bill that would simply throw the country into chaos rather than total oblivion.
Ted Cruz, for his part, is absolutely furious that rules prevent him and his colleagues from wreaking total havoc.
GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz signaled the Senate parliamentarian should be ousted or ignored if a full repeal of Obamacare is deemed to violate budget rules.
“At the end of the day, the Senate parliamentarian is an employee of the Senate. Virtually every Republican campaigned promising full repeal,” Cruz said Thursday. “And a great many promised explicitly full repeal on reconciliation, and we should do exactly what we said we would do.” [...]
“It shows that Republican leadership has been insufficiently dedicated to honoring the promises we made to the men and women who elected us,” Cruz said.
Meanwhile, we're just 10 days away from hitting the debt ceiling.