The office of the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell, from Kentucky, is doing an outstanding job in providing frequent daily updates on the Democrats' socialized medicine scheme, known around Washington D.C. and the country as ObamaCare.
For example, Christian Coalition of America was informed by Leader McConnell's office on Friday that the Senate is back on Health Care today and there are currently two pending amendments:
- Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's amendment #2870 which is a Sense of the Senate on Social Security and CLASS Act surpluses
- Republican Senator Orrin Hatch motion's to commit the bill to the Finance Committee to prevent the cuts to Medicare Advantage
In addition, there are probably other votes on other amendments today and throughout this weekend.
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Yesterday the Senate had 4 votes on amendments. Below is a breakdown of the votes:
- Democrat Senator Barbara Mikulski's amendment #2791 (preventive care) was agreed to 61-39. All Republicans except Senators David Vitter (from Louisiana; his reason is unknown at this time); and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins both from Maine, voted against the amendment, and all Independents and Democrats except Senators Ben Nelson (NE) and Russ Feingold voted for the amendment.
The House Pro-life Caucus stated that "Pro-life leaders opposed the (Mikulski) amendment because it provides authority that could be used to mandate abortion coverage in private insurance plans. It specifies that anything classified as preventive care or screenings for women by the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) would become a mandated covered service. Therefore, if HRSA recommended abortion as a preventive care, insurance plans would have to cover abortion. Pro-life organizations advocated for simple language to ensure abortion would not be mandated, but no clarifying language was added."
This is yet another attempt by pro-abortion Senators to ensure that the pro-life amendment passed by a large margin in the House of Representatives in their version of ObamaCare last month (sponsored by Democrat Congressman Bart Stupak (Michigan) and Republican Congressman Joe Pitts (Pennsylvania) will not be kept in the final Senate/House compromise bill, if indeed the Senate bill is even voted upon on the Senate floor. Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat from Nebraska, has said he will join the Republican filibuster against a final vote on the Senate's ObamaCare bill IF any funding for abortion remains in the bill.
- Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski amendment #2836 (preventive care) to take out the abortion provisions of the Mikulski amendment was defeated 41-59
- Democrat Senator Bennet's amendment # 2826 (Medicare) was agreed to 100-0
- Senator John McCain motion to commit the bill to Finance to prevent the cuts to Medicare was defeated 42-58. Senator McCain was trying to prevent an almost 1/2 TRILLION cut for seniors' Medicare in America by Senate Democrats. The Democrats were successful in defeating Senator McCain's amendment and preserved nearly a half-trillion cut in Medicare benefits for seniors.
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U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement Thursday regarding Senate Democrats' vote to keep a half-trillion dollar cut to Medicare in the Reid bill:
"If anyone had any question about the Democrat plan to use Medicare as a piggy-bank to fund their new government programs, those doubts are now gone. 58 Democrats just voted to reject a common-sense proposal to protect senior's health care from a half-trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare. Only in Washington would anyone have the nerve to claim that such drastic cuts won't harm the very program millions of seniors have paid into for years and now rely on."
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