Senate conservatives argue Cantor plan is cover for red state Democrats

Not only do Senate conservatives believe that the latest government funding legislation from Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., doesn't do enough to defund Obamacare, they also say it will undermine Republican chances to take the Senate in 2014.

Under Cantor's plan, the House would pass two separate bills: a continuing resolution that funds all of the federal government including Obamacare, and a resolution that amends the CR to defund Obamacare.

Both bills would be brought to the floor under a rule that would force the Senate to reject the Obamacare defunding CR before it could send the clean CR to President Obama.

House leadership believes this gimmick is necessary to get vulnerable Senate Democrats on the record supporting a fully funded Obamacare.

But conservative Senate aides point out that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, already accomplished this in March during the last CR fight, when he introduced an amendment that would have defunded Obamacare for this fiscal year.

So at best, Cantor's gimmick accomplishes nothing.

Worse, it may give red state Democrats an opportunity to cast a vote for defunding Obamacare, thus giving them cover for the 2014 campaign.

Senate conservatives do not expect that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will need every Democrat vote to defeat the Obamacare defunding resolution, so that will allow red state Democrats to cast a vote that better suits their state.

"It is bad enough they don't support our strategy," one conservative senate aide said, "but do they have to actively undermine it too?"

Via: Washington Examiner

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The Latest on the Dog and Pony CR Plan (Continuing Resolution)

Today, Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced his new dog and pony CR plan to the House Republican Conference.  They will ensure that the Senate sends a clean CR without defunding Obamacare to the president’s desk.  The catch is that the House will vote to defund Obamacare in the CR, thereby saving members from an embarrassing vote, while splitting off the defund rider when the bill heads to the Senate.  The Senate will be able to vote down the defund bill separately and then send a clean CR straight to the President.

So when will they fight Obamacare?

The next time!

Yes, they will fight on the next debt ceiling battle later this year, according to NRO’s Jonathan Strong:

“Towards the end, however, he dropped a big piece of news about the House Republican strategy heading into the next fiscal fight — over raising the debt ceiling. To increase the debt ceiling, Cantor said, Republicans will demand a one-year delay to Obamacare.”

As we’ve noted a number of times, this plan is beyond comical:

• Why in the world would anyone believe you are willing to fight on a harder battle, one which raises the false specter of a default, when you are not willing to fight over a plain government funding bill?
• The CR coincides with the implementation date of Obamacare; the debt ceiling fight will be at least a few weeks after implementation begins.
• If Democrats know that you will always blink out of fear of brinkmanship, why would they listen to you and delay Obamacare?  There is no difference between defund or delay if you lack the courage to follow through with the threat.
• Republicans already delayed the debt ceiling fight in January for the explicit purpose of dealing with the CR first.  Now they are reversing the order again.  Who is dumb enough to fall for this chicanery?

Another issue here is that leadership is trying to use the sequester cuts as the shiny object for the CR.  They are saying that the CR will reflect the $967 billion annualized discretionary spending levels set forth in the Budget Control Act along with the sequester.  There are two problems with this shiny object, aside for the fact that some random discretionary cuts are inconsequential when compared to the fight over Obamacare.

Via: Red State

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