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GOP feuds over Obamacare tactics

Unitedwestand13

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GOP feuds over Obamacare tactics - POLITICO.com Print View

A brewing Republican versus Republican fight over whether to use a government funding measure to choke off Obamacare is splitting the party ahead of this fall’s budget battles.

A growing number of Republicans are rejecting calls from leading conservatives, including Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, to defund the president’s health care law in the resolution to keep the government running past Sept. 30. The rift exposes an emerging divide over how the GOP can best achieve its No. 1 goal — to repeal Obamacare — while highlighting the spreading fears that Republicans would lose a public relations war if the dispute leads to a government shutdown in the fall.

The debate is happening behind closed doors and over Senate lunches, as well as during a frank meeting Wednesday with House leaders in Speaker John Boehner’s suite where fresh concerns were aired about the party’s strategy. On Thursday, the dispute began to spill into public view, most notably when three Senate Republicans — including Minority Whip John Cornyn — withdrew their signatures from a conservative letter demanding defunding Obamacare as a condition for supporting the government funding measure.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) called the push to defund the law through the continuing resolution the “dumbest idea” he had ever heard.

“Defunding the Affordable Care Act is not achievable by shutting down the federal government,” Burr said. “At some point, you’re going to open the federal government back up, and Barack Obama is going to be president.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) have circulated letters in the Senate and House to push their colleagues to unite behind the anti-Obamacare effort. The proponents of the push argue that if the government shuts down over Obamacare, it will be the president’s fault — not theirs.

“I see it as Obama is threatening to shut down the government unless we fund Obamacare,” Rubio said.

Is there any rhyme or reason to this scheme? Threatening to shut down the entire government just to defund on program? What reason makes this scheme plausible?
 
I guess your OP is too slanted. It sounds like the discussion is to fund everything except Obamacare and then force Obama to be the one who shuts down the government by refusing to sign the budget. It would seem like a pretty dumb thing to do unless you are in a 100% safe seat and don't care if your party loses its majority.
 
I guess your OP is too slanted. It sounds like the discussion is to fund everything except Obamacare and then force Obama to be the one who shuts down the government by refusing to sign the budget. It would seem like a pretty dumb thing to do unless you are in a 100% safe seat and don't care if your party loses its majority.

Unlike Obama, they cannot simply skip over implementing selected "bad parts" of PPACA until after the 2014 election. Compromise always sounds so nice if you can simply refuse to give up anything of importance and can manage to blame the other party for the situation. The last "budget" deal got the concessions of raising federal income taxes (on the top 1.4%) by $60 billion in exchange for only a $900 billion federal defict.
 
It's a lot easier to be a Democrat. No different factions. Lock step support for whatever Obama and Reid put out for them to vote for.
 
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