Post date: Sep 30, 2013 10:28:42 PM
Senate Democrats vote 54-46 to table a proposal by the Republican-led House of Representatives to delay President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms for a year in return for temporary funding of the federal government.
WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 30, 2013) (SENATE TV) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Monday (September 30) killed a proposal by the Republican-led House of Representatives to delay President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms for a year in return for temporary funding of the federal government beyond Monday.
By a partisan vote of 54 to 46, the Democratic-controlled Senate defeated the Obamacare delay and a House amendment repealing a medical device tax that were attached to an emergency spending bill."If they try to send us something back, they are spinning their wheels. We are not going to change Obamacare. If they wanted any changes in Obamacare, wait until after the debt ceiling, wait until they are willing to sit down and do a budget for us, with us, and approach this is a reasonable manner. I have a very simple message to John Boehner: Let the House vote. Stop trying to force a government shutdown,"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at a news conference after the vote.
The straight-forward funding bill that would run through Nov. 15 is aimed at averting a government shutdown. It now goes back to the House, where a senior Republican aide said the party would continue to seek a one-year delay in the Obamacare requirement for all individuals to obtain health insurance as part of a new spending bill. The measure also would require the president, senior administration officials and members of Congress and their aides to participate in Obamacare.
The Senate has so far rejected all House efforts to modify the health law in connection with the spending bill.
Still in partisan deadlock, The U.S. Congress was on the verge of shutting down most of the U.S. government starting on Tuesday morning.
Failure to reach an agreement to extend funding would force many federal agencies and programs to close or partially close for the first time in 17 years, putting up to 1 million federal workers on unpaid leave. The military would still function normally, but many civilian employees would be sent home.
Some functions deemed essential, such as U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspections, would continue. Other agencies, including those in the vast Washington's regulatory establishment, will be left with skeleton crews for emergencies.
A shutdown would continue until Congress resolves its differences. That could be a matter of days, or weeks.