~ SURPRISED, ANYONE?? Democrats Defeat Attempt to Repeal Health Care Law...!! ~

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~ SURPRISED, ANYONE?? Democrats Defeat Attempt to Repeal Health Care Law...!! ~

~ From the article:

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated a bid by Republicans to repeal last year’s sweeping health care overhaul, as they successfully mounted a party-line defense of President Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.

Challenges to the law, however, will continue both on Capitol Hill and in the courts, with the United States Supreme Court ultimately expected to decide if the health care law is Constitutional.

The vote was 47 to 51, with all Republicans voting unanimously for repeal but falling 13 votes short of the 60 needed to advance their proposal.

Lawmakers in both parties joined forces, however, to repeal a tax provision in the health care law that would impose a huge information-reporting requirement on small businesses. That vote was 81 to 17, with 34 Democrats and all 47 Republicans in favor.

Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, were absent.

Republicans said after the votes that they would persist in their efforts to overturn the law. Rejecting assertions that the repeal vote was a “futile act,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, said, “These are the first steps in a long road that will culminate in 2012.”

~ The article from the website:

[link to thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com]

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