Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell apparently thinks he has 51 votes cobbled together within his fractured Republican conference to put an Obamacare repeal and Planned Parenthood defunding on President Obama's desk for a veto. He's moved to vote on the reconciliation bill on Thursday.
McConnell moved to take up the legislation by voice vote, before offering a substitute amendment to the House-passed bill to make sure that it complies with the Senate's budget rules.
Under the budget reconciliation process, the GOP will need only 51 votes to get the ObamaCare repeal package, which is expected to also cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood, through the Senate.
While moderate Republicans have raised concerns over linking the organization to the larger bill targeting the Affordable Care Act, Senate GOP leadership appeared confident that they will be able to get the support needed to make sure the legislation lands on President Obama's desk.
That will give extremist Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz more of an opportunity to talk about "baby parts" and rile up the horrible base even more. That, of course, is what this measure is all about. Completely. Horrible, extremist base politics.
Democrats will try to remove the Planned Parenthood defunding with an amendment that will put pressure on moderate Republicans who are unhappy with the measure. Between the handful or moderates who don't want this provision to pass, and the hardliner extremist Republicans running for president who don't think it repeals enough of Obamacare, McConnell's challenge of getting 51 votes seemingly hasn't changed.
But that's not going to stop him from doing the irresponsible, highly politicized thing. He's going to spend two days of this dwindling session, when Congress has to come together to keep government funded, on stoking the worst fires in the base.
