WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- President Barack Obama has vetoed legislation to repeal his signature health care law.
WASHINGTON (@AP) - Obama vetoes bill to repeal signature health care law, cut Planned Parenthood funding.
— TheBlazeNOW (@TheBlazeNOW) January 8, 2016It's one of many repeal measures pushed by Republican lawmakers since 2010, when Obama signed the health care program into law. But it's the first bill to clear both houses of Congress and make it to Obama's desk.
The legislation would also cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The Senate passed the bill last year under special rules that protected it from a Democratic filibuster. The House followed suit this week. Both chambers are now under GOP control. The veto was expected.
“President Obama’s gall is stunning," Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn) said Friday, in response to Obama's veto. "He spent this week discussing the need to ‘protect innocent people’ and ‘save more lives’ yet he callously vetoed a bill to protect the most innocent and vulnerable among us from the heinous abuses of Planned Parenthood."
This May 17, 2013 file photo shows Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn. speaking on Capitol Hill in Washington. The House passed a bill Thursday that would ban new subsidies to help people buy health insurance until the Obama administration enacts a new verification system to ensure they only go to those who are eligible. Black is also investigating whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement circumvented the law when the agency only changed the name on a position Congress defunded in March. (Credit: AP)
"What’s more, he denied Americans a chance at relief from his disastrous healthcare law that – nearly six years later – still remains underwater in public opinion polls," Black said.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, among Americans 18 and older, 48 percent said they disapprove of the law while 47 percent said they approve.
But other Republicans say they met two goals by passing the bill: keeping a promise to voters in an election year, and showing their ability to repeal the law if a Republican wins the presidency.
This post has been updated.
