“4. If you present bills to Obama to rein in these programs and he vetoes them (or shuts down the government) make him own it.”
“5. If you present bills to fund everything EXCEPT these two and he chooses to shut down the government rather than sign them, he will be laid bare as the ideologue he is—even for the LIV.”
One minor point. The GOP cannot bring a bill to the floor without six democrat senators voting in favor of cloture. That limits their ability to “bring bills to Obama”.
Essentially, you are saying that the only thing the GOP can do without democrat cooperation is to bring bills forward that force votes that embarrass Obama and the Democrat party. With that I agree.
My disagreement with others on this thread is that one can blame the gop for not repealing obamacare or overturning amnesty. Even if every GOP senator votes in favor of those things, they will not pass.
I also disagree with others on this thread that shutting down the government is a viable strategy. Others say that since the GOP ran on overturning amnesty and repealing Obamacare, they have a mandate to shutdown the government. That completely ignores the fact that every GOP candidate ran on a platform of no government shutdown.
Not true.
My disagreement with others on this thread is that one can blame the gop for not repealing obamacare or overturning amnesty.
True, we can't blame them for not repealing. WE CAN blame them for setting it up to begin with. Although it passed without a single GOP vote and the Dems own in that way, the GOP owes the implementation. Although elected with a mandate to stop Obamacare in 2010, they have instead set up Obamacare with every continuing resolution since (including the current one).
This applies to amnesty as well. We own the power of the purse. Do not fund what you don't want funded. Simple. Pass the departmentalized bills one by one out of the House and let the Dems try to stand in their way while blaming the GOP for "obstruction". When the government isn't funded, it won't be the fault of the GOP and that will be clear. In fact, the GOP gets the "credit" or "blame" for the last shutdown depending on your political persuasion. There are many who credit the GOP for FINALLY showing some backbone. The press just doesn't want to explore what comes after "who is to blame for the last shutdown?"... the biggest political event prior to the "wave" election.
It would all be fun to watch if our side had any sort of gonads whatsoever.