Senate Republicans are launching another effort to defund parts of President Barack Obama's health care law, including what their campaign chairman referred to Wednesday as "the death panel." All 46 Republican senators signed on to a letter spearheaded by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., that calls for a permanent delay of the health care law. "While your recent action provides temporary relief for some, we believe that all Americans deserve permanent relief from this onerous law, so that we can adopt common-sense reforms that will actually lower costs and that Americans support," the Republicans wrote in the letter to Obama. At a news conference unveiling the letter, Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas announced his plan to offer amendments to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill during the full Senate Appropriations markup Thursday. "Among a series of amendments that I will offer to that bill are two that I wanted to talk about today. One, I will offer an amendment to — no money can be used to enforce the mandate on business within the Affordable Care Act, and two, I will offer an amendment that says no money can be spent in this bill to enforce the individual mandate," Moran said. In addition to chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he serves as the ranking member on the Appropriations subcommittee. "I will offer an amendment that will defund IPAB, the so-called death panel, to transfer that money to be utilized for children's health research," Moran said, adding that Republicans also "will offer an amendment to eliminate the $1.4 billion that is in the bill to fund the exchanges," citing states that decided against establishing their own health care exchanges. (more…)
