In case you missed it last week (I was busy in Helena, so wasn;t as quick at updating the website), an amendment by Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) to defund Obamacare passed the US House.
Great Falls Tribune: House Adopts Rehberg Amendment to Defund Obamacare
On largely party-line votes, the Republican-controlled House adopted proposals Friday from Rehberg and two other GOP members to cut off funding this year so the various provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which President Barack Obama championed as his top domestic priority, can’t be implemented.
The “defunding” provisions were added to a 2011 spending bill that would cut about $61 billion from 2010 levels to help pay down the federal debt. The House was expected to pass the bill early Saturday, and send it to the Democrat-controlled Senate. The Senate is not expected to go along with the demolition of the health care reform law, of which Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was a chief architect.
VIDEO OF FLOOR SPEECH
Plus, House Dems want to ban the use of the term Obamacare. The American Thinker’s Rick Moran notes this:
“You would think he wants his name attached to his signature legislation.”
That’s a quote from Denny Rehberg (R-MT) who sponsored the bill that would defund ObamaCare.
If Obama and the Democrats believe that health insurance reform is such a marvelous – “historic” they called it – achievement, how can it be “disparaging” to attach the president’s name to it? By their lights, it is the ultimate compliment.
Except, of course, the gargantuan monstrosity of a bill is wildly unpopular and the Dems don’t want the president’s name associated with it. Too bad. They made their legislative bed, now let them lie in it.
Meanwhile, the main reason Rehberg is playing such a big role in the Obamacare debate is due to his new role as an Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman. The move undoubtedly raised Rehberg’s profile in advance of the 2012 race against Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). The Democrats have worked, in kind, to get Senator Tester a subcommittee chairmanship as well.
The Flathead Beacon has this:
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester says he has been given the chairmanship of a subcommittee that oversees parts of the financial system and economic policy.
Tester, in his first term in the Senate, is a member of the Senate Banking Committee and now will also chair the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy.