president biden was in iowa, and he was talking i want to switch gears a little bit to the debate we saw yesterday on capitol hill, about the blunt amendment. the vice president was in iowa, and he said, you know what, he said that the initial rollout of this policy about contraception coverage, health care coverage among religiously run institutions, not counting churches and places of worship, was not done very well, but that they got it the second time. do you concur with that? well, i think that a couple of things. when the initial policy was put out, it was put out with a wreer delay in implementation for religious organizations, so we could figure out how best we can handle it. to ensure that women got the health care that they needed. the time frame, obviously, was condensed to a couple of weeks, where we came out with a policy to ensure that we could achieve just that. the balance, of protecting religious liberty, but ensuring women got health care that they needed. you kno
the motion on the table agreed to. by 51-48, mostly party line both the democrats killed the blot amendment that would have allowed employers and insurers to opt out of president obama s healthcare law that morally objectionable, including the cost of birth control. denying contraception coverage to women. it appeals to the social agenda of a small vocal part of the republican party. republicans argued it was a freedom of religion issue. i finally thought a revolution to prevent this type of tyranny. that s what it is. this is tyranny. senator roy blount said the measure narrowly focused on the healthcare law. this does nothing to modify the state or federal laws now in effect.
exempted from a requirement providing contraception coverage if they claimed personal religious objections or moral objections. the amendment went down 51 to 48. retiring republican senator olympia snowe voted with the democrats in order to table that amendment. democrats bob casey of pennsylvania, joe manchin of west virginia, and ben nelson of nebraska voted with the republicans. kris cillizza is an nbc contributor and managing editor of postpolitics.com. hey, chris. this was a key test already of the gender wars. it was pretty clear that it was going to be defeated. and susan collins voted with her fellow republicans, against some of the other women in the senate, saying that she thought that this was an amendment that was defective, but they could be fixed later on, but that the democrat were playing election year politics. well, you know, i would say both sides are probably playing a little bit of election year politics here, andrea. this was, you heard barbara boxer, the califo
agreed to stop proceedings uranium and testing long-range missiles. now back to hardball. when will my colleagues understand this very nondebatable fact? that the decision of whether a woman takes one medicine or another or what type of health care she should have access to should not be the decision of her boss. welcome back to hardball. that s new york senator kirsten gillibrand previewing the fight to come tomorrow when the senate votes on legislation sponsored by missouri republican roy blunt that would let anyone, employee or employer, opt out of pars of the health care plan inconsistent with their religious beliefs or their own moral convictions. this gets to the heart of the fight over whether free contraception coverage should be required in the health care law. new york senator charles schumer opposes the legislation to
business channel as well. good to see you. thank you. bill: we ll be paying for more, not just for gasoline but prices at the store. in january you saw the prices jump 5 percent from this time a year ago. we re all going to feel it. martha: those are just a few of the stories that bill and i have cooked up for you. there s a lot going on that we re going to talk about. also ahead in the news, attorney general eric holder vigorously defending the mandate on contraception coverage. he is vowing a fight in court by the doj. so we re going to talk about that in a moment. bill: also the white house closely watching those gas prices rise. why democrats now say that president obama s chances in november might hinge on the price you re paying at the pump. i don t know what they re doing. so many senior citizens like myself i don t use my car for that reason. i try to go where the cheapest gas, and yesterday i had to go to the deli, i ended up walking because i didn t want to waste the