Yesterday afternoon, after my last Note from Don Cole, Senator Mike Lee and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed to bring up a vote on repeal of Obamacare in the reconciliation process at a later time.
I received e-mails from many readers letting me know that you called your Senators to ask them to stand with Mike Lee. You made a difference.
The so-called, “Nuclear Option” that Senator Lee was ready to use is similar to what Harry Reid used to get Obamacare passed in the first place. He could not get 60 votes in the Senate so he used a procedure called reconciliation on a House measure.
Senator Lee and Majority Leader McConnell came out with a joint statement yesterday that committed to use the same reconciliation process to repeal Obamacare. Some commentators will say that Senator Lee backed down, others say that McConnell backed down.
The bottom line is that Senators heard from the American people. For those of us calling our Georgia Senators, we were preaching to the choir, nevertheless, they knew that Georgians support them in their demand that Republicans carry out what they said that they would do. Thank you for letting our Senators hear from you.
One other bit of good news. Senator McConnell is fast-tracking a vote to defund Planned Parenthood. I know that I’ve been critical of Senator McConnell at times. I appreciate his leadership in moving a defunding measure forward as quickly as possible.
The joint statements below are published on Senator Lee’s website.
Leader McConnell: “Earlier this year, Senate Republicans passed a balanced budget, and with it the necessary procedural tools – via the budget reconciliation process – to bring an end to the nightmare of Obamacare. Americans have faced skyrocketing health care costs, rampant fraud and more government between them and their doctors. And Republicans are united in working to repeal the broken promises of Obamacare and allow our country to start over fresh with real health reform that Americans deserve. We will continue our effort to use reconciliation – as the budget makes clear – to fulfill the promise we made to our constituents.”
Sen. Lee: “Americans deserve quality health care at affordable prices and Obamacare is giving them the exact opposite. A Senate vote to repeal Obamacare on a simple majority basis through reconciliation is the best way to pursue that goal. The Majority Leader and I are committed to using reconciliation to repeal Obamacare in the 114th Congress.”
I appreciate you taking the time to read my thoughts. Please forward these to your friends and share on Facebook. Also, let me hear from you. I always enjoy hearing back from you and I try to respond when you take the time to write me.
