Free Republic

Earlier this week, there were reports and commentary to the effect that the House Republican leadership had surrendered and fallen in with those conservatives who think that the continuing resolution to fund the government can be used to stop funding for Obamacare. Then there were claims that Senator Cruz had given up on fighting Obamacare in the Senate. Both of these perceptions were false, and they’re related. Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are just as convinced as ever that a partial government shutdown would not advance any conservative goal, and just as determined to avoid one. They...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/20/obama-congress-republicans-kansas-city-budget-shutdown/2842889/

Great first step today by the House! Now the bill goes to the Senate and there's no doubt they'll change it to fund ObamaCare. And then the House must hold the line! Reject the Senate's changes! Defund/kill ObamaCommieCare before it kills us!! If Obama/Reid follow through with their threats to shutdown the government, then the adults in the House, with the full backing of the people, will have an opportunity to pass appropriation bills to fund the essential departments of government department by department. The first appropriations bill to pass should be social security and medicare. This will set the...

The Wall Street Journal reports today on the latest “Obamacare” glitch to emerge—this one striking at the heart of the law’s coverage expansions: Less than two weeks before the launch of insurance marketplaces created by the federal health overhaul, the government’s software can’t reliably determine how much people need to pay for coverage, according to insurance executives and people familiar with the program…. -snip- Less than two weeks before the exchanges “go live,” officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are months behind schedule and scrambling to “fix” the software that will run exchanges in 36 separate...

The House on Friday passed legislation that defunds ObamaCare but would keep the government running through mid-December. The legislation was approved on a party line 230-189 vote, with Rep. Scott Rigel (Va.) the only GOP no vote. Two Democrats voted for the measure, Reps. Jim Matheson (Utah) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.). Passage of the bill sets up a showdown with the Senate, and moves the two sides closer to a possible government shutdown on Oct. 1. The ObamaCare language is expected to be stripped from the bill in the Senate, setting up a critical week of negotiations next week. House...

Grassroots pressure from conservatives has induced the House Republican leadership to permit a vote on a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare. That is excellent news. For spearheading the move to defund the (Not Remotely) Affordable Care Act, intrepid Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have been scalded by the usual ruling class crowd of GOP establishment leaders and Obama administration officials. Yet public resistance to a law the public has never liked – and about which the public grows increasingly anxious as its deleterious consequences and exploding costs begin to materialize – has forced leadership’s hand even as...

The recent Pew poll found that 53% of Americans were opposed to ObamaCare, while only 41% supported it. The recent CNN poll: 57% polled were opposed to ObamaCare, while only 39% support it. The even more recent Rasmussen poll: 52% of Americans are opposed to ObamaCare, while only 41& support it.

Republicans oppose ObamaCare.  That's no secret.  But there seems to be some conflicting ideas among Republicans about how that opposition should be played out on Capitol Hill. For example, the House GOP establishment had, until this week, wanted to hold votes on ...[Snip] a separate bill that would keep the government funded after this month.  This was the expected path, the path of GOP reason and "compromise" according to the media and Democrats.  [Snip] Conservatives less interested in pre-emptive capitulation to Democrats, however, have suggested there be a vote on a single bill which would both defund ObamaCare and provide...

An Ohio clinic that was touted by Obama while he was speaking on health care reform is now blaming ObamaCare after it was forced to cut $330 million from its budget. Fox 8 reports the Cleveland Clinic, which is the largest employer in Northeast Ohio with about 39,000 workers in the region, announced the cuts to its 2014 budget at a meeting Wednesday. A spokeswoman for the clinic tells Fox News the clinic is being forced to cut back to prepare for increased costs and decreased revenue under the health care reform law. These changes will include offering early retirement...

President Obama’s spokesman said Thursday that Speaker John A. Boehner suffers from “Putin envy,” after the speaker’s office criticized Mr. Obama in a video for being more willing to negotiate with the Russian president than with House Republicans. “The video, I thought, demonstrated a little Putin envy, a little odd bit of Putin envy, on behalf of the speaker, but maybe he can explain that,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday he will use any means necessary, including a filibuster on the Senate floor, to defund President Obama’s health care law while passing a short-term spending plan this month to keep the government open. House conservatives joined Mr. Cruz, Texas Republican, and Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, in heaping praise on House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, for putting forth a measure that would keep government funded past Sept. 30 while taking money away from the Affordable Care Act, a health overhaul they see as dangerous for the country. The two GOP senators said they...

WASHINGTON — If there was any question who’s setting the agenda and direction of the Republican Party in the House it was answered Wednesday when, after forcing Speaker John Boehner to agree to once again attempt to defund Obamacare, Rep. Steve Stockman thanked fellow Tea Partier Rep. Tom Graves — and not the man ostensibly sitting atop the GOP’s top perch. “[Americans] want to defund ObamaCare and keep the government open. Thank you to Tom Graves and others who worked to make this happen,” Stockman said in a press release blasted out to national media. “Republicans should listen to the...

Until now, the only House Republicans pushing for a government shutdown and debt crisis were a few dozen on the radical right, the ones Senator, Harry Reid, the majority leader, referred to as “the anarchists.” On Wednesday, however, the full Republican caucus, leadership and all, joined the anarchy movement, announcing plans to demand the defunding of health care reform as the price for keeping the government open past Sept. 30. The decision means that a government shutdown next month is now much more likely. In the past, shutdown threats were averted because Republican leaders were willing to negotiate on spending...

WASHINGTON — House Republicans united Wednesday around a plan to use the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to repeal President Obama's healthcare law, confident the American people are on their side. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) yielded to his right flank by agreeing to attach the healthcare law repeal to a must-pass bill to keep the government funded past Sept. 30. A vote is expected Friday on a bill that would allow the government to stay open for the next few months. The measure is all but certain to pass the Republican-led House, but faces rejection in...

Mark Levin delivered a fantastic monologue coming out of the gate today on Obamacare and the fact that Republicans have finally been forced by the American people to try and defund it. Listen:

House Republican leadership will attempt to pass a government-funding bill with language that defunds Obamacare, according to senior aides. The bill, called a continuing resolution, will likely come to the House floor late this week, roughly two weeks before funding for the federal government expires on Oct. 1. The attempt to defund Obamacare, which has almost no chance of being enacted into law, signals that Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy felt the need to take a sharp turn to the right in order to pass a government funding bill through the House. The...

The movement to defund Obamacare has reached a critical moment. According to news reports, House Republicans are deciding this morning whether they will use a government funding bill to stop the unfair, unaffordable, and unworkable health care law. With less than two weeks until the government takeover of health care, it’s time for Republicans and Democrats to put aside party politics and do right by the American people: Stop Obamacare before it’s too late.

I have been interested in the political atmosphere of our country since my preteen years. It has been particularly interesting to observe the political shenanigans adopted by many of those wishing to obtain or maintain power. Fortunately, there have also been many who were truly interested in serving the people who put them in office. Looking at one’s life, voting record and words can provide significant insight into which of the aforementioned categories a political figure fits. In the 1960s, John F. Kennedy wrote a book titled “Profiles In Courage,” which was very inspiring, as he examined the lives of...

Republican Rep. Tom Graves’ budget plan to defund Obamacare while avoiding a government shutdown is rapidly gaining House support, but President Obama’s advocacy group Organizing for Action (OFA) is still using claims that Republicans want a shutdown in its fundraising pitch. Graves’ Stability, Security, and Fairness Resolution now has 70 House cosponsors after 11 more lawmakers cosponsored Tuesday. The continuing resolution proposal for fiscal year 2014 actually avoids a government shutdown and funds all facets of the federal government, with the exception of spending related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Graves introduced the plan last Thursday. “There...

Grassroots conservatives who want to stop ObamaCare are making their voices heard. There is evidence that their elected representatives are starting to listen, and it is good. When Congress left Washington for its August recess, the voices demanding action to prevent American taxpayers from paying for ObamaCare – described by its chief Senate author, Democrat Senator Max Baucus as a ‘train wreck’ – were faint and few. Senator Mike Lee drafted a letter calling on the Senate to fund everything in the upcoming Continuing Resolution (CR), except ObamaCare. Every Republican in the Senate is on the record calling for defunding,...