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Don't be Suckered by House GOP's Phony Obamacare Vote
Conservative HQ ^ | 9/12/13 | Staff

Posted on 09/12/2013 9:28:27 AM PDT by xzins

The House Republican “leadership,” and we use that term in the loosest sense, is preparing to confirm once and for all that it is a principle-free zone by scheduling a phony vote to defund Obamacare.

The smoke and mirrors procedure cooked-up by House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia calls for sending the Senate a stopgap spending bill together with a resolution that would alter the text of the bill once it’s enrolled for presentation to President Barack Obama – the so-called “enrollment correction” would bar funding to carry out Public Law 111-148, (Obamacare). The Democratic-controlled Senate of course retains the right to choose whether to accept the “correction,” or not, and could then send the funding bill on to President Obama with little more controversy or debate.

This strategy has the effect of allowing House Republicans to be for funding Obamacare before they were against it.

The Sessions-Cantor strategy is not an attempt to force Democrats into taking an unpopular vote, rather it is an attempt to fool grassroots conservative voters into thinking that House Republicans actually stood on principle and voted against a spending bill with money to implement Obamacare in it.

And it might have worked but for the principled leadership of Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee who were quick to call-out the House on this phony vote.

Conservative activists and advocacy organizations, such as the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America, were also quick to call the Sessions-Cantor strategy what it is, a cynical ploy.

Club for Growth President Chris Chocola issued a statement that asked what was on the minds of most conservatives we know once they were clued-into what was actually going on with this vote: “When members were at home over recess, did they hear their constituents ask for legislative tricks or principled leadership?”

And that’s really been the problem with the House GOP ever since voters gave them back control of the House in the Tea Party wave election of 2010: It is not the rank-and-file Members of the House Republican Conference who are the problem – it is the complete lack of commitment to govern according to conservative principles from the House Republican leadership that is the problem.

Heritage President Jim DeMint and Heritage Action CEO Michael Needham put the real life effect of this lack of principle best in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal:

“Elected leaders in both parties should summon the courage to put their political futures on the line, because the future of America is truly on the line. Politicians who oppose ObamaCare should not vote to fund it. Those who want a socialized health-care system should vote to fund it. There is no middle ground and no place to hide.”

Whether they realize it or not, whether they decide to put them there or not, the political futures of the House Republican leaders are already on the line.

The conservative grassroots voters of this country are tired of being treated like idiots by Washington’s GOP insiders on Capitol Hill and the RNC. This ploy by Sessions and Cantor (temporarily on hold now that it has been exposed) is just one more example of why the price for conservative support at the polls in 2014 should be new leadership in the House GOP.

To add your name to the list of conservatives who demand a real vote, not a phony vote, to defund Obamacare please sign our “No Trick Votes On Obamacare” petition today.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Ohio; US: Texas; US: Utah; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: 0carenightmare; aca; boehner; chrischocola; clubforgrowth; congress; ericcantor; jimdemint; michaelneedham; mikelee; obamacare; obamacaredeception; ohio; petesessions; randsconcerntrolls; rinos; tedcruz; texas; utah; virginia

1 posted on 09/12/2013 9:28:27 AM PDT by xzins
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To: All; Jim Robinson

We’ve got to again burn up the phone lines and the servers to our representatives in the House.


2 posted on 09/12/2013 9:29:18 AM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: xzins

House Reps are wimps, cowards and collaborators.


3 posted on 09/12/2013 9:30:10 AM PDT by Farnsworth ("The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness...This and no)
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To: xzins; All

What is lacking in today’s body politic is a philosophy that can be advanced BECAUSE of the veiled threats of doom by the opposition.

Without that “Damn the torpeodes! Full speed ahead!” philosophy, the meekest member of the opposition can turn us into sniveling, sobbing, cowards such as Boehner and McConnell.

For example, the manipulating, fear-mongering, threat of doom and gloom promoted by the supporters of Government harm to our Republic that a certain Republican action would “shutdown the Government” SHOULD be a clarion call for Republicans to shut down the Government to right the wrong that the Government is currently doing.

To not shut down the Government is to support continuation of the wrong that the Government is currently doing.

Whatever wrong is being protected by the supporters of Governmental wrong, SHOULD BE our signal that we should focus on undoing what they are trying to protect, deny, coverup or otherwise hide.

What is required to right the wrong is known to all Warriors: THE COURAGE OF ONE’S CONVICTIONS.

Instead, today in our sorry body politic, these are times of whimpering, timid, compromise-away-one’s-values in the false hope of achieving the equivalent of a 1960’s group hippie hug.

These are times when we wait silently for a larger than life, Warrior to swoop in on a white horse and make everything nicey-nice again.

These are times when the majority of people who vote choose politicians that promise pie-in-the-sky to them, and then these same politicians get put in charge of increasing the debt burden on our Grandchildren’s descendants.

Thus, we have a self-caused burden of a virtual cycle of debt to our descendants caused by promises that we choose to vote for.

These are the times when the obvious solution to these problems can be seen by “The Man in the Glass.”

________________

BTW, read below the above quoted poem for suggestions to improve one’s response-ability.

The Man in the Glass

by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934
1895-1954

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Just go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Whose judgment upon you must pass.
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the man staring back from the glass.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may get what you want down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.


4 posted on 09/12/2013 9:31:50 AM PDT by Graewoulf (Traitor John Roberts' Commune-Style Obama'care' violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: xzins

Ha! Boy do these people hate their every action being watched so closely. Their schemes are failing left and right.


5 posted on 09/12/2013 9:34:33 AM PDT by cotton1706
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To: xzins

Other posts indicate the strategy has been defeated because the leadership couldn’t round up the votes and the bill has been pulled.


6 posted on 09/12/2013 9:36:25 AM PDT by saganite (What happens to taglines? Is there a termination date?)
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To: Farnsworth

“House Reps are wimps, cowards and collaborators.”

You’ve got to realize that they are bought and paid for by the medical insurance industry just like the Democrats. This just shows to those paying attention that Dems and Repubs are just two sides of the same coin and that nothing will really change as long as people continue to send the same crooks back year after year.


7 posted on 09/12/2013 9:36:40 AM PDT by trapped_in_LA
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To: xzins
"This ploy by Sessions and Cantor (temporarily on hold now that it has been exposed)..."

Excellent news. This is why Harry Reid said today, "Anarchists are running Congress." He's pissed that their little procedural trick was discovered and exposed to the nation.

8 posted on 09/12/2013 9:38:54 AM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: xzins

here it is happening again, if legislation is not straight up, honest and a benefit for and applies to all of the people, IT IS CORRUPT!


9 posted on 09/12/2013 9:42:22 AM PDT by drypowder
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To: xzins; Windflier; All
Old news, the measure has been defeated already.

It's those darned anarchists........

10 posted on 09/12/2013 9:43:05 AM PDT by Lakeshark (KILL THE BILL! CALL. FAX. WRITE.)
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To: xzins

Congress exempted themselves for this monstrosity. And muslims are free from it too. But we little people just have to get in line and take whatever government slips us.

America, eh?


11 posted on 09/12/2013 9:50:51 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: xzins

The outrage is real and deserved.

On the other hand, there is absolutely no way that, in the end, tax dollars will not be funding Obamacare next year.

The conservatives, and the republican party, have not done a good job at all of messaging. We can certainly cause a shutdown, but even people who hate Obamacare will not be supporting the shutdown, and the political pressure will cause whatever threadbare coalition we got to start a shutdown to crumble.

And that would be the best outcome. The most likely outcome is 30 republicans who we could all name jump ship and vote on whatever the democrats in the house are willing to offer. It will be bad, it will be liberal, and they will do so.

The worst outcome is that 20 of those republicans get so spooked that they switch parties. This gives Pelosi the speakership NOW. Then there’s nothing stopping Obama, even before the 2014 elections.

The defunding of Obamacare should have been easy, and could have been done without shutting down government (or at the least, making it obvious that it was the democrats shutting down government simply because they didn’t get Obamacare funding).

But not now. We lost that fight a year ago.

If there was a way to win now, it would be through a tweak of Cantor’s plan, where instead of a single vote on Obamacare in the senate, we tied various parts of Obamacare to other abhorent spending the left loves. For each Obamacare item, it would be tied to moving the Obamacare funding to one of these leftist things we can never defund anyway.

Make about 10 of these. Force the senate to cast 10 votes that say “we want to fund obamacare, and we’ll cut funding for this other pet program to do it”. At least SOME of those Obamacare things would be so unpopular that we might even win some.

It would also be great if we had, over the past year, found a funding mechanism to support the 2 things about Obamacare that people like, because we were in no position to actually win CONCESSIONS on popular items just because the rest of the bill sucks. We were never going to put back pre-existing conditions, even though that part is the stupid part that causes all the trouble. We should have instead been honest, committed the tax dollars, and set up exchanges for people who cannot buy insurance because of existing conditions, that would only cover those existing conditions.

Make the left acknowledge that we all have to pay for their party — instead Obamacare passes that to people through increased health care costs, which the left blames on evil insurance companies.

But none of this will happen, because we won’t get passed the “lets just shut down government, and the 51% of the people stupid enough to vote for Obama will love us for taking away all the stuff Obama promised them that made them stupid in the first place”.

Sometimes I think conservatives have WAY TOO optimistic an opinion of the average person in this country. You’d think that Obama’s re-election would have finally knocked some sense into us. We have the house because we did a great job of redistricting. And we have a much better message, but only if we win votes, get legislation passed, and the average person sees that their lives are better.

The left’s goal is simple — keep people down, blame republicans for everything bad that is happening, and NEVER let any republican ideas pass that might prove we know what we are talking about. Without the Senate, we can’t overcome that. Without the presidency, we can’t stop them.

And we will NOT win the senate or the presidency if we end up blamed for the next recession through the shutdown or debt ceiling fight. And right now, we will be blamed, by a massive majority. It is all messaging, and we lost that battle a year ago.


12 posted on 09/12/2013 10:53:21 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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To: trapped_in_LA
True. I'm behind the curve, I just recently came to the realization the majority of Reps are no different than Dems.
13 posted on 09/12/2013 11:10:50 AM PDT by Farnsworth ("The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness...This and no)
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To: xzins

“The conservative grassroots voters of this country are tired of being treated like idiots by Washington’s GOP insiders on Capitol Hill and the RNC. This ploy by Sessions and Cantor (temporarily on hold now that it has been exposed) is just one more example of why the price for conservative support at the polls in 2014 should be new leadership in the House GOP. “

But here’s the thing: the house gop ‘leadership’, such as it is, will probably quit before they’re fired in 2014. In the mean time they’ll do as much damage as possible.


14 posted on 09/12/2013 1:39:31 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Power disintegrates when people withdraw their obedience and support)
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To: RKBA Democrat

I don’t know the rules. Can they oust a speaker mid-session?


15 posted on 09/12/2013 1:40:38 PM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Graewoulf

“These are the times when the obvious solution to these problems can be seen by “The Man in the Glass.”

The obvious solution is obtaining a political divorce. But my “man in the glass” also knows that pursuing such is likely to end in the deaths of a lot of innocents.

Hyperbole? Not really. The Powers That Be are considering getting into a war so dear leader can save face. If we’re honest with ourselves, we would consider what they’d be capable of if something really endangered their hegemony.

My “man in the glass” isn’t a psychopath, so the obvious solution isn’t an option. I’m all ears to less obvious solutions.


16 posted on 09/12/2013 1:42:19 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Power disintegrates when people withdraw their obedience and support)
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To: xzins

“I don’t know the rules. Can they oust a speaker mid-session?”

They’re responsible for their own rules, so sure. It just isn’t going to happen. Most of the gop in the house elected boehner **because they agreed with him.** And even if you could by some miracle cobble together a majority of gop reps to toss boehner midterm, the ‘rat minority would be more than happy to vote for him and keep the millstone around conservative necks.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some principled, conservative members of Congress. There are. Just not enough. Maybe 30-50 in the House and 10-15 in the Senate.


17 posted on 09/12/2013 1:48:28 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Power disintegrates when people withdraw their obedience and support)
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To: CharlesWayneCT
But not now. We lost that fight a year ago.

No we lost that fight when Bonehead Boehner, refused to let Michele Bachman make any attempt to defund it. That is all you need to know about our GOPe.

18 posted on 09/12/2013 2:08:40 PM PDT by itsahoot (It is not so much that history repeats, but that human nature does not change.)
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To: xzins
Can they oust a speaker mid-session?

Ask Newt and his immediate successor.

19 posted on 09/12/2013 2:39:52 PM PDT by itsahoot (It is not so much that history repeats, but that human nature does not change.)
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To: CharlesWayneCT
Sometimes I think conservatives have WAY TOO optimistic an opinion of the average person in this country.

We have to. Conservatism is premised on the notion that individual citizens know best how to run their own lives. Liberalism is predicated on the opposite notions, that people don't know what's best for themselves and need to be told by others.

Self-reliance is hard. But the reward is self-determination, which the average American does really want.

We have the house because we did a great job of redistricting.

You've hit on something very important here. That's good in the short term, but I actually think that's bad in the long term.

Redistricting has insulated us from having to actually reach the most people. We can keep preaching to our choir without having to make our case to moderates. Fine for our own safely drawn and protected districts, but terrible for winning anything on a national scale. We can't even win a policy argument now, much less the presidency.

We need to be able to break out of our bubble and speak to the wider nation. That's the only way our message of self-reliance and self-determination can be heard.
20 posted on 09/12/2013 5:25:16 PM PDT by highball ("I never should have switched from scotch to martinis." -- the last words of Humphrey Bogart)
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