State GOP Chairman Robin Hayes is calling on the state legislature to override Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the health care bill.
“It is now up to the members of the North Carolina General Assembly to stand with the people of North Carolina and override Governor Perdue's veto of House bill 2,” Hayes said in a statement Monday.
Over the weekend, Perdue vetoed a bill passed along largely partisan lines by the legislature's Republican majority that would have required North Carolina to join 27 other states in challenging the health care overhaul bill passed last year by the Democratic Congress at the urging of President Barack Obama.
Opposition to the health care bill became a major rallying point for the Tea Party movement and helped fuel the Republican victories in last November's elections. But in order to get the 3/5 votes necessary to override, Republicans would have to win the support of some conservative Democrats in the House.
In vetoing the bill, Perdue said it was meaningless for North Carolina to join a suit that would be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. And she said it could jeopardize federal funding for some health car funding.
But Hayes, a former congressman, called Perdue's veto “a political IOU from Governor Perdue to Obama, (Nancy) Pelosi, (Harry) Reid and the liberal special interests she needs to win re-election in 2012.”
UPDATE: Later in the day, Hayes sent out news releases calling on four House members to join with Republicans to join the overrride. They are Reps. Dewey Hill of Whiteville, Timothy Spear of Creswell, William Brisson of Dublin and Frank McGuirt of Wingate. Brisson and Democratic Rep. Jim Crawford were the two Democrats who had voted with the Republicans to pass the bill.
