Obamacare repeal out of gas

Senate Democrats blocked a proposal to repeal President Obama’s health care law that Republicans sought to add to a highway funding bill.

Senators voted, 49 to 43, for the amendment, with 60 required to advance it, during an unusual Sunday session.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, proposed the Obamacare repeal amendment as he also agreed to allow a vote on an amendment sought by Democrats to extend the charter of the Export-Import Bank.



The majority leader said Friday he offered the Obamacare repeal because the bank “shouldn’t be the only vote” on a highway bill amendment. The Senate plans to vote on that amendment next.

McConnell said Sunday that Obamacare is “filled with higher costs, fewer choices and broken promises” and “continues to hammer hardworking middle-class families.”

The House has voted about 60 times to repeal or delay all or part of Obamacare. The Senate was under Democratic control until January.

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said a vote to repeal Obamacare would return to a time when health care was “for the healthy and the wealthy.”