Obamacare and the GOP’s Negotiation Crisis

Should Congressional Republicans (1) fight to completely defund Obamacare, putting the brakes not only on its immediate implementation but also on any efforts to plan for its future implementation, (2) fight to delay implementation of the individual mandate and/or other provisions (following the Administration’s lead in delaying the employer mandate, or (3) leave the issue alone and focus on other elements of the budget? What tactics should the GOP use: should it hold up the next continuing resolution, creating the threat of a government shutdown? Tie it to the next debt ceiling fight?

I have tried, with mixed success, to steer clear of this inside-baseball tactical debate, which has generated an outsized amount of acrimony within the Beltway GOP and the conservative movement alike. The pro-defund caucus has been accused, not without reason but with a lot of unfair ad hominems, of being unrealistic in its expectations and misleading the grassroots into a losing battle. The anti-defund caucus, formally aligned mostly behind the “delay” solution, has been accused, not without reason but with a lot of unfair ad hominems, of being spineless, afraid of its own shadow, and in some cases actively scheming to keep Obamacare alive.

For a flavor of the arguments, see Ben Howe on the fear of defeat driving the don’t-defund side,Drew M. on the grassroots’ lack of trust in the leadership, Erick on why this is a “read my lips” moment for GOP leadership’s credibility, the Wall Street Journal on why the leadership thinks the grassroots and the backbenchers have lost their minds, Avik Roy on the argument for replacing rather than repealing Obamacare as part of a larger entitlement reform strategy, andRobert Costa on how the fight is energizing conservative pro-defund groups. Ben Domenech, in this morning’s Transom newsletter (an indispensable read on this issue), reviewed the “delay” options and concluded:

I remain unconvinced that any of these approaches are any smarter or more likely to succeed than the somehow “more radical” defunding approach, and I think it’s a bit silly to expect GOPers who won’t hold the line on a government shutdown to hold the same line on risking default. I do share the belief that fighting for delay is always more realistic (and polls better) than defunding, and that a debt ceiling fight reflects more on the president than the Congress (where the reverse is true of a CR), but it also makes sense to open any conflict with defunding, because you’re only going to move backwards from there. After all, you are a Republican.

In any case, this is all pointless and irrelevant: Republicans on Capitol Hill, in leadership or in the conservative wing, are seeking a point of leverage that does not exist. The president would like nothing better than to force a government shutdown and benefit from both the immediate backlash and the inevitable Republican cave. This is true of the CR or the debt ceiling, defund or delay, however you want to approach it. Arguing that one untenable position is savvy and politically intelligent while the other untenable position is crazy or ideologically treacherous is something Republicans have made something of a science in recent years…For as intransigent as the media paints them, you’d think they’d do a better job of it.

Via: Red State

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A Vote to Fund Obamacare Will Fund Deliberate Destruction of Life

At the end of this month, members of Congress will face a binary choice. The House and Senate will pass a bill to fund the government past Sept. 30, the last day of the fiscal year. That bill will either permit or prohibit funding for implementation of Obamacare. Members will need to vote for it or against it.

There will be no middle ground.

If the bill permits funding for implementation of Obamacare and a member votes for it, that member will be voting to allow the administration to send tax dollars to health care providers who perform abortions.

That member will also be voting to allow the administration to use tax dollars to force Catholics and others who share the view that abortion is murder — or that artificial contraception and sterilization are intrinsically immoral — to act against their consciences.

Members who knowingly vote for legislation that provides the administration with the money to carry out these attacks on the right to life, the freedom of conscience and the free exercise of religion will be complicit in those attacks.

It will not be as if these members just turned the other way and did not look as the Obama administration facilitated the destruction of innocent life and crushed the freedom of conscience; these members will have knowingly handed the administration the tools it needed to do these evil things.

How do we know that?

Via: CNS News

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Conservatives float new plan to delay Obamacare by one year

House conservatives are coalescing around an alternative plan that would delay implementation of Obamacare by one year and use the money saved to restore the sequester-mandated spending cuts, in exchange for approving either a must-pass budget bill or legislation to raise the debt ceiling.

The concept was hatched by conservative House Republicans disappointed with a GOP leadership proposal that would send to theSenate a budget bill that funds the government beyond Sept. 30 but allows the Democratic chamber to approve that spending while simultaneously voting down an attached amendment stripping all funding for the Affordable Care Act. Conservative activists are pushing House Republicans to leverage a government shutdown as a means to defund Obamacare.

House conservatives are sympathetic to this strategy, which involves passing a budget that defunds Obamacare and attempts to pin the blame for the inevitable government shutdown on President Obama. But even these Republicans recognize the political risk of a government shutdown, and they are now trying to devise an alternative to the leadership proposal that would still cut Obamacare.

“My take is, a consensus is all beginning to build,” Rep. John Fleming, R-La., said Wednesday as he exited a closed-door meeting of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House Republicans. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., attended the meeting, but did not address RSC members, those present said.

Republican leaders cancelled a vote on their Obamacare proposal this week, acknowledging that they didn't have the votes needed to clear the House.

RSC meetings can be raucous and emotive, with caucus members occasionally venting their unhappiness with leadership and its various plans. But members exiting Wednesday’s conclave described the discussion as constructive, an attempt to “thread the needle” between GOP leaders’ desire to avoid a politically risky government shutdown and conservative demands that the upcoming fiscal negotiations be used to block implementation of Obamacare, which will accelerate in October.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Tea partiers rally against GOP’s ‘phony votes’ to defund Obamacare

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of sign-waving tea partiers rallied on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to demand that Republicans in Congress take authentic steps to defund President Obama’s health-care law and not just keep going through the motions to appease the conservative base.

“Over the next few days, we’re going to see all sorts of games, showmanship, shenanigans and other things that other people in the ruling elite will try to do to pull the wool over our eyes,” said Jenny Beth Martin, the national coordinator of Tea Party Patriots.

Via: Daily Caller

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Updated: Refocusing on Obamacare

[Update: Based on what I'm hearing from House sources, the worst suspicions are confirmed.  Eric Cantor is floating an idea to pass a short-term CR with a defund rider.  But just as we predicted, they plan to write a rule that will sever the defund rider from the body of the bill after it passes the House.  This will allow the Senate to vote down the defund part separately, and send a clean CR straight to the President's desk without ever returning to the House.  This will ensure that we capitulate while allowing House and Senate Republicans to be shielded from charges of voting to defund Obamacare.  Here is the link from Politico.

This is exactly why we need new leadership in the party.  Call your members and make sure they are opposed to any trick that will allow the Senate to separate Obamacare funding from the rest of the bill.  If they support funding Obamacare in the budget, they should have the courage to do so through the front door.]

Washington is a strange place.  If you only spent your time inside the D.C. beltway you would come away with the impression that the most important policy issues are amnesty for illegals and air strikes for Al-Qaeda in Syria.  Yet in the real world, Americans are concerned about the lethargic economy and the destruction of the healthcare system at the hands of Obamacare.  Only in Washington can the focus be shifted to foreign interests just three weeks before implementation of the worst domestic program in American history.

On October 1, the Obamacare exchanges will officially open their doors, bringing us one step closer to the immutable dependency on government and the inexorable unsustainability of the private healthcare sector.  Employers are cutting health benefits, jobs – or both.  Healthy individuals who purchase their own health insurance will no longer be able to afford their own plan.  Doctors with decades of experience plan to retire due to the cumbersome mandates, restrictions, and paperwork.  Even many Democrats believe this plan is unworkable and are looking for leadership to stop this travesty from taking root.

Via: Red State

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Norquist Sees Obamacare Delay as Better Strategy Than Defunding

Republicans in Congress would be better off working to delay the Affordable Care Act, rather than trying to defund it, says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

He'd love to see defunding, but the Democratic Senate won't approve it, and even if it did, President Barack Obama wouldn't sign the bill, Norquist told Newsmax TV in an exclusive interview. 

"If they don't do it, then you have to have plan B," he said. "Plan B, which is delay everything a year, has several advantages."


First, there are seven Democratic senators who have to run in red states, Norquist says. 

Editor's Note: ObamaCare Is About to Strike — Are You Prepared?

"They're terrified of Obamacare starting to take effect. . . . They might well prefer to delay it a year or even two to get it past the election." That could attract enough votes in the Senate for passage.

And when it comes to Obama, he already has delayed pieces of the healthcare law, also known as Obamacare, "to pay off his big business friends, his insurance company friends, his labor union friends and all of the congressional staffers," Norquist said.

"They get delays. You don't. We can talk about that for the next two months and embarrass the heck out of him and every Democrat running for [Congress] and say delay it for everyone, not just your fat cat friends, Mr. President."
Via: Newsmax

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Obamacare Quiz for Employers

If you work somewhere, Obamacare is most likely affecting your employer—and you.

In a new paper, Heritage’s Alyene Senger explains how “Obamacare will impose new health coverage costs, the employer mandate, compliance regulations, and new taxes on all businesses.”

How will businesses respond to all these costs and regulations? What would you do? Take our quiz.

Via: The Foundry

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