GOP Eyes a New Fiscal Prize With Health-Law Push

Shift in Focus From Previous Goal of Extracting Spending Cuts Worries Some Deficit Hawks

In this fall's fiscal showdowns, the long-held Republican goal of extracting spending cuts and other deficit-reduction measures has been eclipsed by the party's drive to stop the federal health-care law.

The result has been to inject more volatility and uncertainty into debate on crucial measures to keep the government open and solvent. Amid the fireworks over the health law, some Republicans worry that any drive to address the long-term debt problem is suffering from neglect.

"We are losing the forest for the trees here—there is still $17 trillion in debt," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.). "Why aren't we addressing these issues?"

Even as near-term deficit projections have improved, some deficit hawks hope to refocus attention on the long-term debt problem as Congress turns to the next phase of fiscal debate—legislation to raise the federal debt limit, which the Treasury says must be done by Oct. 17.

But the drive to strip funding for the health law, a landmark of President Barack Obama's time in office, isn't going away. House Republicans this week are preparing legislation to extend borrowing authority for a year, linking it to a one-year health-law delay and other GOP policy goals. Some Republicans also are seeking to tie funding of the government beyond Oct. 1 to an effort to dismantle the health law.

I can’t read the entire article, as it requires a login.

But, if excerpt is accurate, and doesn’t allow for Ayottes’s comments to have more context, she typifies a condition plaguing the GOPe. They uniformly can’t do two things at one time. The increasing debt, and the move to throttle Obamacare are not mutually exclusive. A person can actually do both at the same time. In fact, the battle on Obamacare will assist solving the debt problem. It is not a complete answer, but it is a start.

You're much to kind.

This isn't a misunderstanding on her part, but her looking for excuses she thinks will distract you from the truth, she doesn't want to do the right thing because she doesn't think it benefits her politically.

Kelly is a liar.

Taking the long view, in the mid-term elections, the Republicans may control both houses of congress, which means they will partially control appropriations, until a new Republican president is elected in four years.

So there needs to be a conservative strategy now. To start with, they will need to be very clear with Obama that there will not be *any* spending greater than the existing budget. Not a red penny.

This is because Obama can probably prevent spending cuts yet, but Republicans can “hold the line” on spending. They can also start making serious adjustments to appropriations of the most *obnoxious* of the government agencies, to force them to quit oppressing the people.

These half-measures should just lead up to a Republican congress and a Republican senate (with fewer RINOs, hopefully too few to block conservative legislation), and a Republican president.

When *that* happens is when the budgetary axes start to chop. A Republican congress should approach the federal budget as if they are carrying a chainsaw.

They will have to be mentally prepared to end literally tens of thousands of government programs and hundreds of thousands of regulations. And the more they end at the start of the new congress, the better, so they can reverse any small cuts that are needed a year later.

If there is a large and powerful conservative think tank out there, they need to take a yellow high-lighter pen to the index of federal regulations, so that there will be a ready list of things to delete.

Conservative chairmen of house and senate committees should begin day one with a laundry list of deletions that will be made on a party line vote, one after another. Then they each should forward deletions passed out of their committee to the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader, who will include it in the process ASAP.

Then bill after bill, canceling decades of federal growth, will go to the Republican POTUS, and tens of thousands of pink slips will go out to federal employees.

But when GWB had both the HOR and Senate, he kept growing the government, getting involved in regime change, and giving us conservative judges....like Roberts.

At this point, the public is on the side of change....Benghazi, arming AlQaida in Syria, labelling Snowden a traitor, Obamacare, 2nd ammendment rights, "refugees" who are terrorists, the invasion of the US, no real jobs,....

The only reason the RINOs want to negotiate with Obama, now, is that they'd rather defeat the conservative tide and keep the game going.

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