GOP, Perdue face off over health care reform, spending

Senate Republicans voted today to override Perdue's veto of a budget-cutting bill. But House Republicans couldn't muster the votes needed to override her veto of their anti-HCR mandate bill.

Posted 1:54 a.m. Mar 10, 2011 — Updated 4:55 a.m. Mar 10, 2011

Laura Leslie

You win some, you lose some.

That was the case today for Republican statehouse leaders, who failed in their attempt to override Perdue's veto of House Bill 2, the measure that sought to exempt North Carolina from the individual mandate portion of the federal health care overhaul.

House Republicans needed four Democratic votes to reach 72 - the three-fifths vote required to override a veto. But not one Democrat voted with them - not even Brisson and Crawford, who had previously voted in favor of the bill. Both said they don't like the federal overhaul, but they weren't willing to vote against the governor.

Just two hours before session, Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Thom Tillis announced they would attempt to upset a second Perdue veto today, too. Berger and Tillis previously said they would not challenge her veto of Senate Bill 13, but said today that "new information" from the state controller had led them to reconsider that decision.

The Senate passed its override easily. Republicans control 31 seats in that chamber, one more than needed for an override vote. But it still has to pass the House, where Tillis concedes the GOP doesn't have the votes to finish the job. Tillis said today he's hoping to persuade Perdue to "release the Democrats" to vote with the Republicans against her veto of S13.

The governor's response this afternoon makes that seem... well, unlikely.

Here's tonight's recap:

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