On a 240-185 vote today, with all Republicans supporting and all but three Democrats in opposition, the House of Representatives voted to strip the Obamacare health care law of its federal funding.
The Senate voted immediately afterwards 53-47, on a party-line vote, and defeated the Obamacare de-funding measure. However, the House vote is an indication of the way Americans strongly oppose the Obamacare law, which contains loopholes allowing federal taxpayer funding of abortion and presents rationing concerns for pro-life groups.
The Senate vote had all three of the self-declared pro-life Democrats, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, vote against de-funding the pro-abortion, pro-rationing Obamacare law.
In fact, according to a new Associated Press poll, support for Obama’s health-insurance expansion has slipped to 35 percent, while opposition stands at 45 percent and another 17 percent are undecided. Among seniors, support for the Obamacare measure has slipped to under 30 percent for the first time.
Meanwhile, a Rasmussen Reports poll shows a majority of voters still favor repeal of the health care law with 51% of Likely Voters at least somewhat favoring repeal of the health care law, including 41% who Strongly Favor it. Forty-one percent (41%) oppose repeal, with 28% who are Strongly Opposed.
Since Democrats passed the law in Congress in late March of last year, support for repeal has ranged from a low of 50% to a high of 63%. At the same time, the number of voters who oppose repeal has ranged from 33% to 43%. Republicans consistently have been strongly in support of repeal, while Democrats have overwhelmingly opposed it. This week, among voters not affiliated with either major party, 53% favor repeal and 37% oppose it.
Before the Obamacare de-funding votes, the National Right to Life Committee sent members of Congress a letter urging supportive votes on the resolution.
Since its inception, the pro-life movement has been as concerned with protecting the lives of older people and people with disabilities from euthanasia, including the involuntary denial of treatment, food, and fluids necessary to prevent death, as it has been dedicated to protecting unborn children from abortion. For this reason, we are strongly opposed to government-imposed rationing of lifesaving medical treatment. The PPACA contains multiple provisions that will, if fully implemented, result in government-imposed rationing of lifesaving medical care. Among the most dangerous: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be empowered to impose so-called “quality” and “efficiency” measures on health care providers, based on recommendations by the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is directed to force private health care spending below the rate of medical inflation. In many cases treatment that a doctor and patient deem needed or advisable to save that patient’s life or preserve or improve the patient’s health but which runs afoul of the imposed standards will be denied, even if the patient wants to pay for it.
NRLC also says Obamacare “includes multiple provisions authorizing funding of abortion and funding of health plans that cover abortion.”
When Congress passed the government-run health care bill, it did so without any limits on abortion funding and language mandating taxpayer financing of abortion in certain circumstances.
President Obama eventually issued a controversial executive order supposedly taking the abortion funding issue off the table. However, virtually every pro-life groupsaid it would not mitigate the abortion funding because it doesn’t have the effect of law, could be reversed in the future, and because it didn’t tackle much of the abortion funding in the bill. The Obama administration could also ignore the order and not put it in place when the health care law goes into effect.
See how the House voted at https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll270.xml and see the Senate vote at https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=112&session=1&vote=00059
ACTION: Contact members of the House at https://www.house.gov and members of the Senate at https://www.senate.gov to express your opinion on their votes.
