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Republicans are pushing toward Senate approval of legislation demolishing President Barack Obama's signature health care law and halting Planned Parenthood's federal money, setting up a veto fight the GOP knows it will lose but thinks will delight conservative voters. The White House promised a veto Wednesday, saying the bill would "take away critical benefits and health care coverage" from families. With Republicans lacking the two-thirds House and Senate majorities needed for a successful override, the measure became a political messaging battlefield as both parties looked toward the 2016 presidential and congressional elections. (Fram, 12/3)

Mitch McConnell is close to pulling off a feat that at first seemed impossible: Coax Ted Cruz and antagonistic conservative groups to back his strategy to repeal Obamacare. For weeks, Cruz, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate and chief McConnell nemesis, and conservative Sens. Mike Lee and Marco Rubio threatened to vote against a House-passed bill dismantling the health care law, insisting that it didn’t go far enough in the Republican quest to finally send a sweeping Obamacare repeal to the White House. (Kim, Everett and Haberkorn, 12/3)

GOP lawmakers suggested the bill could serve as a bridge to a new Republican health care law. Though Obama's overhaul was enacted five years ago and gets tepid support in public opinion polls, GOP members of Congress have yet to produce a detailed proposal to replace it. Democrats say repeal would destroy a program that has reduced the number of uninsured Americans by around 16 million, let families' policies cover children until age 26 and guarantees coverage for people with pre-existing illnesses. (12/3)

Republicans understand that Obama will veto any measure to undo his signature domestic policy accomplishment. But that doesn’t matter. As the party in charge, Republicans believe they owe it to the constituents who put them in office to force the issue. But yanking millions of Americans off health insurance may be easier as a campaign slogan than a policy initiative, and Thursday’s vote to pass a repeal bill from the Senate was proving difficult until the final gavel. (Mascaro, 12/3)

The Senate is expected to vote on the bill Thursday, which the White House said President Obama would veto. The legislation would eliminate Obamacare's individual and employer mandates, the medical device tax and the so-called Cadillac tax. It would also cut off funding to Planned Parenthood for one year after an anti-abortion group released videos over the summer showing officials discussing the transfer of fetal tissue. (Shabad, 12/2)