House Republicans have a plan to get their bills past the Senate.
WASHINGTON -- Planned Parenthood and Obamacare are probably the two things the GOP hates most. House Republicans are targeting both this week with an obscure procedural move that could finally advance opposition bills to President Barack Obama's desk.
The procedure is called budget reconciliation, and legislation advanced that way cannot be filibustered in the Senate, is subject only to limited amendments and needs only simple majority votes to pass, according to House and Senate rules.
It would then be up to Obama to veto the measures, which he would be all but certain to do. But the process would move two cherished GOP goals through the Senate, pushing them further than they've ever gotten before.
“Obamacare remains as unpopular as ever, and this package gives us our best shot to put a repeal bill on the president’s desk," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who is leading the Obamacare attack and rolled out his plans Monday.
Congress set up the moves last spring when it passed a budget plan that included reconciliation provisions -- essentially instructions for various committees to draw up legislation targeting the Affordable Care Act and other unspecified issues. Senate committees are expected to take similar steps to those in the House.
Ryan's legislation targets the ACA by ordering the repeal of several key parts of the law, including the mandate for people to purchase health care, the cost-controlling Independent Payment Advisory Board, a tax on medical devices, and the so-called "Cadillac plan" tax on high-cost health insurance.
The legislation cannot target all of the Affordable Care Act because reconciliation bills must be focused on taxes, spending or the debt limit, not on policy. But according to the Ways and Means Committee's assessment, "the repeal of these provisions would be a devastating blow to Obamacare."
The Energy and Commerce Committee and the Committee on Education and the Workforce are preparing legislation this week to repeal other parts of Obamacare.
It is the Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), that is drawing up the bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
More: GOP To Launch New Assault On Obamacare, Planned Parenthood
I'm sure President Obama will have his veto pen ready.
