Biden vows to use veto if Republicans win Congress and try to ban abortion

Authored by reuters.com and submitted by Beckles28nz
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WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday vowed to use his veto power to protect women's rights if Republicans win control of Congress in next month's midterm elections and pass laws to outlaw abortion nationwide.

Biden, asked in an interview with MSNBC what he would do to protect women's rights should Republicans gain control of the legislature, said: "Veto anything they do."

The Democratic president this week sought to mobilize his left-leaning base by promising to sign a law to codify abortion rights in January if Democrats triumph in next month's elections.

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Biden's Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate too, in the November vote. The president is trying to rally the party and its supporters around abortion rights, which were sharply curtailed by the Supreme Court's decision nearly four months ago to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade ruling.

If Democrats elect more senators and keep control of the House, Biden said he would sign a law in January to ensure women's right to abortion across the country.

Democrats, who largely support abortion rights, currently have a slim majority in the House and control the 50-50 Senate through Vice President Kamala Harris' ability to cast tie-breaking votes. Republicans largely oppose abortion rights.

In order to outlaw abortion, Republicans would have to pass legislation, but it would not become the law of the land unless Biden signed it.

"The president has to sign it. I'll veto it," he said.

The Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that recognized women's constitutional right to abortion in June, drawing condemnation from Biden and spurring optimism among Democrats that outrage over the decision would drive voters to the polls in November.

But high inflation has remained at the top of voters' minds, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling, and just 8% of Americans cited the end of national abortion rights as the issue that will most influence how they vote in November, compared with 27% who cited inflation in a poll conducted Sept. 27 to Oct. 3.

Reporting by Andrea Shalal Editing by Chris Reese and Rosalba O'Brien

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MaximumEffort433 on October 21st, 2022 at 23:51 UTC »

Ehem: That doesn't mean you get to sit out the election.

Love it or like it the past two years have seen more legislative progress in a long ass time, I don't think Obama or Clinton got this much legislation passed with their single congressional term, you might have to go back to Jimmy Carter or fuckin' LBJ to find this quantity, and if I'm overstating it's not by much.

But if Democrats lose the House that's it, that's the end of their legislative agenda until they win the House back, all you can do with control of the Senate is obstruct legislation and appoint Judges, if Democrats only have a majority in the Senate they won't be able to make an inch of progress because Republicans will have full control of what legislation gets voted on in the House.

When Democrats lost the House in 2010 it took them 8 years to win it back, when Democrats lost the House in 1994 it took them 12 years to win it back, during that time it was literally impossible for Democrats to advance their legislative agenda because why would Republicans do that? Why would Republicans even bring the Democrat's legislative agenda up vote a vote?

In 2014 voters had gotten so sick and tired of the lack of progressive legislation getting passed in the Republican House of Representatives that the midterms had record low turnout and Republicans won the Senate. This shit snowballs.

In 2016 Mitch McConnell used his power as leader of the Senate to just not vote on President Obama's Supreme Court appointment, he just never scheduled it. Why would he? Republicans care a great deal about the Supreme Court, they'd been trying to take it over since Reagan, and that vacancy gave Donald Trump exactly the campaign issue he needed to retain the Republican electorate.

Democrats lost the House in 1994 and six years later we had Bush. Democrats lost the House in 2010 and six years later we had Trump.

Let's not repeat our mistakes.

dutchiegeet32 on October 21st, 2022 at 23:42 UTC »

The 118th session will be one giant GOP audition for 2024's races.

-CJF- on October 21st, 2022 at 23:37 UTC »

If republicans win Congress, Biden will probably be doing a lot of vetoing.