The Washington Post: "The decision underscores the hurdle that the GOP faces in that Democratic-majority chamber as it tries to overturn the law. All 50 Senate Democrats present and one independent voted against the repeal, while all 47 Republicans voted in favor. Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) were not present. The measure was proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Republicans would have needed the support of 13 Democrats due to a Democratic-led procedural move that set up a 60-vote hurdle for the measure to move forward" (Sonmez, 2/2).

Politico: But, the Senate  "voted Wednesday for the first time to repeal a piece of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, rolling back a new tax reporting requirement that's been universally panned by business owners. The amendment to repeal the 1099 reporting requirement passed 81-17 with broad bipartisan support. The provision was one that Obama identified in his State of the Union speech as something that Democrats were willing to change. The Senate voted several times last year on repealing the requirement, but all the attempts failed amid partisan bickering over how to pay for it" (Haberkorn, 2/2).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.