CNN: 'Senate Dems Supported Rule That Led To Insurance Cancellations' | All DEMs Voted Against GOP Attempt To Block Obamacare Provision
Today in Washington, D.C. - Nov. 1, 2013
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene on Monday at 2 PM when it will consider 2 district court nominees. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has also scheduled a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 815, legislation known as ENDA.
Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked two controversial Obama nominees, Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to be director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which would oversee Fannie and Freddie, and Patricia Millett to be a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Millett was the first of a group of nominees Democrats are pushing in an attempt to change the ideological majority on the DC Circuit Court, even though the court does not have the caseload to justify more judges at the moment.
The cloture vote to move forward with the Watt nomination failed 56-42 and cloture on the Millett nomination failed 55-38.
The House is not in session today.
CNN reminds Americans today, “Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.
“‘The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,’ Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time. ‘The administration's own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House's own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,’ the Iowa Republican said.
“On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year.”
Indeed, when the vote was taken on the resolution, every Senate Republican voted for it, and every single Senate Democrat, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Obamacare coauthor Max Baucus (D-MT), voted to kill it. Even senators like Mark Begich (D-AK), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Mark Udall (D-CO), voted for it, though, as CNN notes, many of them “have since supported delaying parts of Obamacare.”
The day the Senate voted on the resolution, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said on the floor, “[R]emember when the President of the United States spoke to a joint session of Congress and he told the American people about the plan that was later signed into law. During that speech the President said: ‘..... if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.’ Let me repeat: ‘Nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.’ . . . On June 14 of this year, the Obama administration released a 121-page ‘grandfathered health plan’ rule. It is a rule that clearly violates--clearly violates--the President's promise. Let me explain how. ObamaCare included a provision allowing existing insurance plans to be ‘grandfathered’ under the new law. Theoretically, that means that employers and individuals would not have to give up the coverage they have and they like to comply with onerous government rules and mandates. So you have to make sure, though, that you read the fine print. Look at the chart. The chart in the new administration rules estimates between 39 and 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered health plan status.”
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday, “I recently received a disturbing note from a constituent in Burlington, Kentucky. And unfortunately, I suspect a lot of my colleagues have been receiving notes just like it. This gentleman said that after receiving several letters from his insurer, it became clear to him that the President was being misleading when he said that if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. That’s because he found out that his policy, which came into effect just two months after the law’s arbitrary cutoff date for grandfathered plans, will be discontinued next year. . . . Well, he’s right to be upset. This is simply not in keeping with the spirit of the President’s often repeated promise. Perhaps the Administration would like to tell him he should’ve just done a better job of keeping up with its regulatory dictats. But what about the millions who purchased their plans relying on the President’s promise that they could keep them? What about the husbands and wives across Kentucky who suffered when two of our largest employers had to drop spousal coverage? What about the husbands and wives across Kentucky who suffered when two of our largest employers had to drop spousal coverage? What about the folks who’ve lost coverage at work? What about all the smaller paychecks and lost jobs? What about the part-time-ization of our economy? This law is a mess. . . . So far, Washington Democrats have resisted every attempt to exempt the struggling constituents we represent. The folks who rammed this partisan bill through know it’s not ready for primetime, and they seem to want no part of it themselves. But for you, the middle class, it seems to be ‘tough luck.’ . . . This isn’t fair. It’s not what Americans were promised. And Republicans intend to keep fighting for the middle-class families suffering under this law. I hope more of our Democrat colleagues will join us in this battle as well.”
Tags: Obamacare, Affordable care act, democrats votes, supported rule, leading rp policy cancellations, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Senate is not in session today and will reconvene on Monday at 2 PM when it will consider 2 district court nominees. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has also scheduled a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 815, legislation known as ENDA.
Yesterday, Senate Republicans blocked two controversial Obama nominees, Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to be director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which would oversee Fannie and Freddie, and Patricia Millett to be a judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Millett was the first of a group of nominees Democrats are pushing in an attempt to change the ideological majority on the DC Circuit Court, even though the court does not have the caseload to justify more judges at the moment.
The cloture vote to move forward with the Watt nomination failed 56-42 and cloture on the Millett nomination failed 55-38.
The House is not in session today.
CNN reminds Americans today, “Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out. In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.
“‘The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,’ Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time. ‘The administration's own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House's own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,’ the Iowa Republican said.
“On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year.”
Indeed, when the vote was taken on the resolution, every Senate Republican voted for it, and every single Senate Democrat, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Obamacare coauthor Max Baucus (D-MT), voted to kill it. Even senators like Mark Begich (D-AK), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Mark Udall (D-CO), voted for it, though, as CNN notes, many of them “have since supported delaying parts of Obamacare.”
The day the Senate voted on the resolution, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) said on the floor, “[R]emember when the President of the United States spoke to a joint session of Congress and he told the American people about the plan that was later signed into law. During that speech the President said: ‘..... if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance through your job, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or the VA, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have.’ Let me repeat: ‘Nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.’ . . . On June 14 of this year, the Obama administration released a 121-page ‘grandfathered health plan’ rule. It is a rule that clearly violates--clearly violates--the President's promise. Let me explain how. ObamaCare included a provision allowing existing insurance plans to be ‘grandfathered’ under the new law. Theoretically, that means that employers and individuals would not have to give up the coverage they have and they like to comply with onerous government rules and mandates. So you have to make sure, though, that you read the fine print. Look at the chart. The chart in the new administration rules estimates between 39 and 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered health plan status.”
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday, “I recently received a disturbing note from a constituent in Burlington, Kentucky. And unfortunately, I suspect a lot of my colleagues have been receiving notes just like it. This gentleman said that after receiving several letters from his insurer, it became clear to him that the President was being misleading when he said that if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. That’s because he found out that his policy, which came into effect just two months after the law’s arbitrary cutoff date for grandfathered plans, will be discontinued next year. . . . Well, he’s right to be upset. This is simply not in keeping with the spirit of the President’s often repeated promise. Perhaps the Administration would like to tell him he should’ve just done a better job of keeping up with its regulatory dictats. But what about the millions who purchased their plans relying on the President’s promise that they could keep them? What about the husbands and wives across Kentucky who suffered when two of our largest employers had to drop spousal coverage? What about the husbands and wives across Kentucky who suffered when two of our largest employers had to drop spousal coverage? What about the folks who’ve lost coverage at work? What about all the smaller paychecks and lost jobs? What about the part-time-ization of our economy? This law is a mess. . . . So far, Washington Democrats have resisted every attempt to exempt the struggling constituents we represent. The folks who rammed this partisan bill through know it’s not ready for primetime, and they seem to want no part of it themselves. But for you, the middle class, it seems to be ‘tough luck.’ . . . This isn’t fair. It’s not what Americans were promised. And Republicans intend to keep fighting for the middle-class families suffering under this law. I hope more of our Democrat colleagues will join us in this battle as well.”
Tags: Obamacare, Affordable care act, democrats votes, supported rule, leading rp policy cancellations, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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