Feb 4, 2016 3 min read

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday failed to override a veto from President Obama striking down a bill that repealed key provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, and placed a one-year moratorium on federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Republicans lacked the two-thirds majority needed to override the president’s Jan. 8 veto of the bill and fell short of the 285 votes needed, 241-186. The two congressmen who represent Washington and Greene counties – Republicans Tim Murphy and Bill Shuster – voted to override the veto.

Because the veto override stalled in the House, the Senate cannot consider the measure.

But that, of course, is not the end the GOP’s efforts to repeal Obamacare. Murphy, Shuster and their Republican colleagues voted 40-or-so times to repeal the law and they’re certainly not about to give up their war on health care.

In his latest email newsletter to constituents, Murphy promised not to stop until the more than 11 million Americans who gained health insurance under Obamacare are stripped of their coverage.

“Congressman Murphy pledged to not back down from the fight and remain firm in his commitment to repeal Obamacare, defend the sanctity of life and make quality health care coverage achievable for all Americans,” the newsletter stated.

Murphy supported the bill to stop taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, a reaction to highly edited and discredited activists’ video clips. He and other House Republicans saw those videos weeks in advance of their release last summer but feigned outrage when the videos, purporting to show haggling over the sale price of fetal tissue, were made public.

Murphy’s voting record is staunchly pro-life, which makes his efforts to defund Planned Parenthood so troubling. Abortion accounts for just 3 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood, and federal funds are already prohibited from covering abortion, except in the dire circumstances of rape, incest, or when the life of the woman is in jeopardy.

Most of what Planned Parenthood does – 80 percent, in fact – is preventing unwanted pregnancy – the cause of abortions – through sex education and birth control. The organization’s 650 clinics provide about 400,000 Pap tests and about 500,000 breast exams each year, critical services in detecting cancer. And Planned Parenthood provides nearly 4.5 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, including 700,000 HIV tests.

These are the services from which Murphy and others in Congress are attempting to strip federal dollars.

Obamacare is certainly not perfect; legislation to improve it is needed. But Republicans are not interested in improvement, only in repeal. They had years to come up with an alternative plan for health care, but so far have nothing. Murphy wants to replace the Affordable Care Act with “a truly patient-centered health care system.” Presidential candidate Donald Trump wants to dump Obamacare and replace it with “something terrific.”

Wonderful. But where is the plan?