�鶹Ů��

Republicans failed in their latest futile attempt Tuesday to kill President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, a Groundhog Day vote by the House that was solely an exercise in election-year political messaging. Tuesday's near party-line vote to override Obama's January veto of legislation gutting much of the law was 241-186, but that fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to reverse a veto. (Fram, 2/2)

At least a two-thirds vote of the House was needed to knock down Obama's veto; the Republican-majority House fell short by more than three dozen votes. The vote was 241-186, and ends consideration of the bill; the Senate will not take it up. (Cornwell, 2/2)

"Regardless of the outcome, we have now shown there is a clear path to full repeal without 60 votes in the Senate," Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday ahead of the vote. "It is also just one in a number of steps we’re taking to hold President Obama accountable for the failures of this law." Ryan has vowed that House Republicans will offer an Obamacare alternative this year — a promise that GOP leadership has made but failed to deliver on for six years since the law passed. (Ehley, 2/2)

House Republicans are moving on to a new round of budget fights after failing on Tuesday to overturn President Obama’s veto of legislation to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood. ... Some hard-line Republicans are quietly complaining the new budget should jettison the increases agreed to in the two-year deal. In response, [Majority Leader Kevin] McCarthy and other House Republican leaders are discussing ways to again turn to the reconciliation process that set up the Obamacare repeal vote, allowing conservatives to vote on priorities like overhauling the tax code and reforming welfare policy as a consolation for spending hikes. (Snell, 2/2)

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that on Thursday the party will begin rolling out “task forces” to work on Republican solutions. Democrats repeatedly highlighted on Tuesday that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that the repeal bill would lead to about 22 million fewer people having health insurance in the years after 2017. (Sullivan, 2/2)

President Obama held a rare meeting Tuesday with the top Republicans in Congress to assess opportunities for compromise during his final year in office, even as the two sides continued partisan sniping that could undermine the prospect of serious legislative progress. ... In a statement about Tuesday’s meeting, Mr. Ryan’s office said he had “in particular, expressed hope that progress can be made to reform our criminal justice and mental health systems.” (Shear and Herszenhorn, 2/2)

President Obama met with Speaker Paul Ryan at the White House Thursday as lawmakers on Capitol Hill staged yet another attempt to repeal the president’s signature health care law. ... Ryan dismissed the coincidental timing in a press conference before going to the White House, saying he didn’t think it would be an issue. “I think he knows how I feel and I know how he feels,” the Wisconsin congressman said. “There are no bones about our differences of opinion. Look, I ran against the guy in the last election, so I think we definitely have different opinions, we have different philosophies and principles.” (Arkin, 2/2)