Obama Just Slapped Down a GOP Attack on Obamacare and Planned Parenthood

As promised.

President Barack Obama vetoing a bill in October 2015.Susan Walsh/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


President Barack Obama on Friday vetoed a GOP-backed bill that would have fulfilled two conservative dreams all at once: to gut the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature health care law, and to pull funding from Planned Parenthood for a year.

The House passed the bill on Wednesday, after it squeaked through the Senate in December thanks to a special budget process requiring only 51 votes for passage instead of the usual 60. It was the 62nd time that Congress had voted on repealing or gutting the law colloquially known as Obamacare since it became law in 2010. It is also the eighth time in a year that Congress has voted on defunding Planned Parenthood.

Obama said in a statement: “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the legislation would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 22 million after 2017…Reliable health care coverage would no longer be a right for everyone: it would return to being a privilege for a few.”

Referring to Planned Parenthood, the president noted the bill “would limit access to health care for men, women, and families across the nation, and would disproportionately impact low-income individuals.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) immediately responded with a video in which he pledges to hold a vote to override the veto, saying that “it is just a matter of time” before Obamacare is done away with. Republicans do not have enough votes in the House to overturn a presidential veto, which requires a two-thirds majority.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate