House, Senate weigh bills that are going nowhere

WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate leaders, usually proud sorts, staged showdown votes in their chambers Thursday on measures that are going nowhere. And in the logic that prevails during the weeks before crucial congressional elections, they want everyone to know about that futility.

The Republican-run House approved a bill allowing insurers to continue selling medical coverage to workers that President Barack Obama’s health care law considers substandard. Well before the vote, the measure was known to be dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate — and for good measure faced a promised Obama veto.