Gutting ObamaCare in Stop-Gap Spending Bills not Necessarily Prudent

Townhall.com ^ | March 19, 2011 | Rachel Alexander

[Kaslin]

It sounds good, cutting $105.5 billion in funding for ObamaCare through 2019 by including a provision in the stop-gap spending measures that are temporarily funding government until a real budget is passed. Some conservative Republicans like Rep. Michelle Bachmann and Rep. Steve King are speaking up and insisting that House Republican leadership include the provision, but so far leadership has not added it, and other conservative Republicans are agreeing with leadership. Which side is right?

There have been several short-term continuing resolutions extending government funding passed this year. The most recent one passed the House and Senate earlier this week, extending government funding through April 8. It includes $6 billion in spending cuts, $2.6 billion of which was earmarks, bringing to $10 billion in unexpected cuts Republicans have been able to negotiate with these bills. Fewer Republicans voted for the most recent extension, no doubt due to the escalating pressure to oppose it because it did not include a defunding mechanism for ObamaCare.

While it looks good to the voters to insist on including a provision defunding ObamaCare, the effect of adding the provision would likely result in a worse outcome. The Democrat-controlled Senate will not vote to pass a stop-gap bill that includes defunding all of ObamaCare, and President Obama especially would never sign a bill that guts the masterpiece of his administration. Without a stop-gap bill, there will be another government shutdown, something that backfired on the Republican Congress in the 1990’s. While it sounds good in theory to force government to shut down over ObamaCare, there is a very good chance doing so will induce a Pandora’s Box of distracting collateral issues, ruining any chances of repealing ObamaCare.

The last two stop-gap bills include $10 billion in spending cuts that would not have been obtained otherwise. This represents the classic scenario members of Congress encounter; do they vote against the stop-gap continuing resolutions, citing principle, or do they take the realistic approach that achieves real fiscal gains?

Unfortunately, several conservative organizations that grade candidates, including the Heritage Foundation’s new lobbying arm, Club for Growth, Family Research Council, and some Tea Party groups are scoring members of Congress poorly who vote for the continuing resolutions. It is rather unfair considering every Republican in the House voted to repeal ObamaCare in January. Voting for that bill is no different than voting for a stop-gap bill that includes defunding ObamaCare; the Senate and Obama will never approve either of them.

There are also efforts to include a provision that eliminates funding for abortion providers. Again, if this kind of provision is included in a stop-gap bill, it is highly unlikely the Senate and Obama will approve the bill. This is all too similar to the manipulation used with pro-life provisions in the ObamaCare bill. Pro-life provisions were put into ObamaCare as a ruse in order to persuade pro-life Democrats to support ObamaCare. There were other ways the pro-life issue could have been dealt with, and there was a risk the provisions would not be adequate. Regrettably, the latter proved true and did nothing but enable the passage of ObamaCare.

There has been some debate over whether the $105.5 billion could even technically be included in the stop-gap bill. It would violate House rules because the bill is an appropriations bill, not an authorization bill. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-K., says you cannot use an appropriations bill to take away “authorized” money. The funding mechanism for ObamaCare was cleverly snuck into ObamaCare so that it could bypass appropriations in the future. There is also a problem with defunding ObamaCare through 2019 in this bill; House rules only permit defunding through 2011. There is only $2.88 billion left authorized for ObamaCare this fiscal year. Whereas the spending cuts negotiated in the continuing resolutions are twice that amount. Of course, advocates of including the defunding provision point out that House leadership could easily get enough support to waive the rules.

There may be another way to get around Obama and the Democrats in the Senate. The House and Energy Committee is working on legislation to defund $81.9 billion of ObamaCare in future years. Senate Democrats and Obama will be less likely to veto energy legislation.

A final concern is that eliminating ObamaCare immediately may interfere with efforts to get it struck down in the courts. Two federal court judges have now ruled against ObamaCare. The decision by Judge Roger Vinson of the Federal District Court in Florida went the furthest, holding that the insurance mandate makes the entire bill unconstitutional. If cutting funding eliminates the mandate, it may render the decision moot. Since the courts generally have final say over anything Congress passes, a court decision getting rid of ObamaCare would be superior to Congressional action.

The latest stop-gap continuing resolution expires on April 8. Congress will most likely vote on another temporary stop-gap measure at that time if the Democrats and Republicans are still in disagreement on an annual budget. As the truth about the provision to defund ObamaCare gets out, it will be revealing to see which Republican members of Congress still believe that voting against the stop-gap measures is a principled position that outweighs pragmatism.

[Lancey Howard]

So says another coward.

[Hoodat]

Not necessarily prudent? I vehemently disagree. Obamacare needs to stop TODAY!

I have a special needs child who requires occupational and speech therapy each week. I had a policy at my job which adequately covered a sizeable portion of those charges. And I also had an FSA which enabled me to pay for the rest with pre-tax income.

Since Obamacare was passed, our company was forced to change policies in order to be compliant with the new restrictions and mandates put in place by the bill. The new policy does not cover my son's therapy costs. Because of that, I have already spent more out of pocket in the first two months of this year than I did all of last year. My wife and I have now notified our child's therapists that we can no longer afford to pay and have cancelled treatment. And to add insult to injury, the FSA ceiling limit will be cut in half beginning next year, which will effectively reduce the amount my family has available for health care costs by $625. Yes, that's right. That's $625 I could be paying for my son's therapy that now will go instead to the federal government.

Obamacare is pure evil, and it needs to be stopped today. But our Republican leadership [sic] in Congress really doesn't care.

[Tareli]

I have two special needs children and face the same dilemma. Maybe a group of parents with special needs children should go to Washington and testify in front of Congress. If they could actually see the lives this abomination is affecting are flesh and blood individuals it might push them to do the right thing.

[YankeeReb]

I'd say that as long as articles like this continue to be published at places like Townhall.com; we're still in deep doo-doo.

Amen.

[CharlesWayneCT]

The house can pass budget after budget that defunds everything we hate. The Senate won’t vote for it, you can’t expect the democrats to give in on every last point; Obama won’t sign it.

So, I guess you could argue that, when the average American is told that the government is shut down because the republicans want to shut down ever one of these programs, the people will side with the republicans, and eventually the democrats will cave.

Looking at Wisconsin, you think they will cave? Looking at Obamacare, think they will cave? Looking at how Obama has by executive order and regulation defied the people, defied the law, and defied the courts, think they will cave?

So now the government is shut down, nobody is getting their checks, everybody has a neighbor out of work, ever defense contract gets a stop work order, and we here stories about soldiers not getting paid.

We going to keep going on this? We own 1 out of 3 of the power points in government. Are we supposed to get everything we want, and the democrats get NOTHING they want?

Sure, we want that to happen. But how is that realistic? In what world do we expect the Senate to cave, to win the 13 democratic votes we need to pass anything?

Now, could we get half of what we want? Probably. At least, the argument to the public would be that the republicans went half way, and it’s time for the democrats to do as well.

But you think the senate is going to accept defunding Obamacare? No way. It isn’t going to happen. We passed that bill, it was dead in the senate.

Now, could we pass a bill that funded Obamacare, but cut Planned parenthood and NPR? Probably, and then we would be “bargaining”, and we could expect the Senate to feel pressure to join in the bargaining.

I don’t know what the conservatives are expecting. I mean, some clearly think it would be great if we simply shut down the government, even though we managed not to pass the defence authorization. I don’t know why the republicans haven’t passed the defense authorization, it is making a mess out of our military, every day there are more programs going to pot because nobody knows if there is money, there are big layoffs now in defense companies simply because the military can’t start or fund projects past the next week.

Is that what a majority of conservatives want — to simply stop funding the government? To shut down everything? I don’t get it.

[Eldon Tyrell]

They didn’t have just a blow out win.

They had a once per century message from the electorate.

The voters said “hit the reset button”.

Failure to act is a conscious denial of the voters wishes.

[sickoflibs]

I was doing my standard opposition researching and found a comment from a liberal at DU that if he is right, would be something to brighten our day. If nothing else, this is a political angle that Republicans need to take advantage of:

It was in the “historic” Health Care Reform Bill, the Oh so ill named “Affordable Health Care for America Act”.

The sentence won't be carried out until 2014 when “The Mandate” kicks in,
and 50 MILLION (80 Million?) are forced to BUY junk Health Insurance they won't be able to use (High Co-Pay/High Deductible).

When these MILLIONS of struggling Americans are forced to send a check to a BIG Insurance Corporation for a product they can't use,
they are going to be PISSED,
and they WILL blame The Democrats,
and rightly so.

The “Centrist” Democrats passed a Republican Health Insurance Scam without forcing the Republicans to take ANY responsibility.
All they have to do is sit back and say, “Yep. We voted AGAINST it.”
Democrats will be unelectable for a generation.

We are already on Death Row.
The execution is set for 2014.
DU comment: 7. The Death Sentence has already been handed down.

[sickoflibs]

Ok this nutcase's delusional fantasy on the same thread is just for laughs, I had to share it :

Those statistics make me want to find a magic lamp at the beach and rub it until the genie appears. When he or she says I have three wishes, they would be as follows.

1. All Republicons must disappear from the earth.

2. The multi millionaires and billionaires (including the 400 richest) must disappear from the earth.

3. All of their cash money, will be totalled, and added to the sale of all of their luxury homes, fancy cars, stocks,gold, silver, platinum and any other property and the proceeds divided among all of us who are left.
The Dems, Independants, progressives and those with no party at all, can divy up the cash, and everyone should be pretty comfortable for the rest of their lives. And at peace, with no more Becks, Limbaughs, Palins, Hannitys and all of the others who kept the noise circulating day in and day out. Now the rest of us can share information from a place of fact and truth. Ahhhh! What a wonderful dream.

Now, with all of the new job openings available, there should be plenty of work for everyone left. And since we are in charge now. All health care companies will be closed and health care for all will become the law of the land.
Lou
DU comment : 20. Those statistics make me want to find a magic lamp at the beach and rub it until the genie

[sickoflibs]

My person opinion is that if Republicans force a government shutdown they better have a plan for winning, not just taking a stand and losing. I remember 1995 and it was very painful to see Clinton beat house Republicans.

[Kaslin]

Contrary to what everyone claims. It was not the Republicans who shut the government down in 1995 but the democRats the republicans only took the blame for it.