House GOP Votes To Fund Government, Kill Obamacare

The Republican-controlled House has voted to keep the government funded but their "continuing resolution" comes with a poison pill to defund the Affordable Care Act that Democrats have vowed is dead on arrival in the Senate.

On a nearly straight party vote, House lawmakers voted 230-to-189 to approve the stop-gap funding resolution, which would keep the government operating until Dec. 15. A single Democrat voted for the measure and just one Republican voted against it.

That means both sides remain at square one on preventing a government shutdown – due in just 10 days unless the partisan divide can be breached.

As NPR's Tamara Keith reported on Morning Edition, the mostly likely scenario now is that "the Senate will take up the spending bill, restore the Obamacare funding and send it back to the House. Tag, you're it."

While House Speaker Rep. John Boehner insisted on moving ahead with Friday's vote, some prominent GOP lawmakers in the Senate, such as Arizona Republican John McCain, have warned that forcing a government shutdown over the Affordable Care Act could backfire on his party.

"It is not going to succeed because the American people do not want government shut down," said McCain. "And they'll blame Congress. It's not as if we haven't seen this movie before."