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Govt Broke by Sept 30: Funding ObamaCare in Spotlight - Why House Excuses for Funding Are Bogus
Maggie's Notebook ^ | 7-26-12 | Maggie@MaggiesNotebook

Posted on 07/26/2012 12:17:05 PM PDT by maggiesnotebook

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is saying the House WILL fund the government, in yet another vote needed to support the swayed-back of Obama administration spending.  We are out of money again on September 30th. When Boehner was asked if ObamaCare will be defunded in the next Continuing Resolution, he coyly answered: "our goal would be to make sure the government is funded." Many are taking that answer as yes, we will continue to fund ObamaCare. We have no budget. The unconstitutional spending will continue through a Continuing Resolution (CR). See why there is plenty of precedent for not funding this taxing legislation below.

The history of current ObamaCare spending:

Untouchable. That’s the treatment being given to the $23.6 billion being spent right now to implement Obamacare.

This $23.6 billion is part of the $105.5 billion appropriated by the last Congress to fund Obamacare. The remainder (Think of it as post-dated checks for the other $81.9 billion.) automatically becomes available between now and FY2019.

None of this is to be confused with an additional $115 billion authorized for additional appropriation to Obamacare—but which the current Congress is unlikely to provide. Heritage Foundation

Questions are:

1) will Republicans have the backbone to insist on other cuts to offset ObamaCare?

2) will Republicans have the backbone to defund ObamaCare since they have voted and passed to repeal it some 31 times?

3) if Republicans are not willing to shutdown the government, rather than funding Obama's "signature" legislation tax increase, what excuses will they give us?

The Heritage Foundation, in an undated article written before the SCOTUS ruling, explains what the House can do:

The excuses [for not defunding] are flimsy. Claims that it “cannot” be done under House rules are wrong and misleading. The House has constitutional authority to package legislation however it wishes.

Self-imposed rules of the House should be no barrier to action, either. Those same rules were waived repeatedly to permit defunding of other programs in the series of continuing resolutions (CRs) that are being used to keep the full federal government open.

In the first full-year CR, the relevant rule (House Rule XXI) was waived to permit 123 previous appropriations to be rescinded. But Obamacare funding was not touched. Perhaps doing the same thing for the 124th time was considered going too far?

Congress waived the rules again in the second two-week CR. But Obamacare funding still went untouched.

In the latest three-week CR, the rules were waived once more, and again Obamacare funding was not touched...

...the only meaningful method for defunding Obamacare is to package the spending cuts with must-pass legislation that has other things—like spending—that President Obama and his team desire. There is no other way to apply political leverage.

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) led 127 members of the U.S. House of Representatives in a letter to Republican leadership to defund the ObamaCare tax. On Bachmann's website, she says:
“The House of Representatives holds the purse strings. Now that the House has voted to fully repeal Obamacare, we should continue to do everything within our power to defund this bureaucratic power grab,” said Bachmann. “Obamacare increases healthcare costs, takes away patient freedom, and hurts America’s job creators – we should not rest until its implementation is blocked.”
In the letter signed by the 127 House Republicans the point is made that implementing ObamaCare is a "discretionary appropriations process," and they urge that the funding for implemention through any Government department, NOT come to the floor of the 112th Congress for consideration.
discretionary, adjective: "subject or left to one's own discretion,"

discretion, noun: the power or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment; freedom of judgement or choice.

The letter ends with a quote from James Madison, Federalist No. 58:
In Federalist No. 58, James Madison wrote that the “power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon ... for obtaining a redress of every grievance…”  We thank you for your consideration and look forward to working closely with you to address defunding one of the largest grievances in our time and to restore patient-centered healthcare in America.
Republican leadership is not forced to allow taxing legislation for ObamaCare. They can stop it if they want to stop it. If the Government has to shutdown, let it shutdown. Find House Appropriations Committee members here. Find contact information here. Committee Chairman Hal Rogers is from Kentucky. If you are not from Kentucky, you can send Tweets to @RepHalRogers.

Credit to brilliant cartoonist, Bob Gorrell, and Ron James - Harmless Aggression


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine; Politics
KEYWORDS: 2012election; 57states; abortion; anwr; appropriations; benedictboehner; boehner; boehner4obamacare; boehner4romneycare; deathpanels; election2012; energy; fundingobamacare; houseofreps; kenyanbornmuzzie; keystonexl; mediawingofthednc; mittromney; mymuslimfaith; obamacare; opec; partisanmediashills; zerocare

1 posted on 07/26/2012 12:17:11 PM PDT by maggiesnotebook
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To: maggiesnotebook

Can we PLEASE get a opposition party??!??!


2 posted on 07/26/2012 12:19:19 PM PDT by cableguymn (For the first time in my life. I fear my country's government.)
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To: maggiesnotebook

Whatever happened to that rule that the actions of one Congress can’t bind another Congress? If the GOP actually had a spine and passed a law requiring all household to own a gun, do you think the next Democrat Congress would sit there and say, “We can’t do anything about changing that law”? Of course not.

The Republican Party will not survive if it fails to terminate ObamaCare.


3 posted on 07/26/2012 12:23:18 PM PDT by txrefugee
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To: maggiesnotebook

The trouble is that until the election, Harry Reid has the Republican House in a stalemate. That is, he refuses to allow even the consideration of budget bills in the US Senate, and has for FOUR YEARS.

Then he dares the Republicans to either pass endless “continuing resolutions”, keeping the last, bloated, Democrat budget, or to TAKE THE BLAME for a complete shutdown of government.

Reid knows that the MSM will completely back Obama and him by blaming the Republicans for shutting down the government, and will just savage them in the press. The conservatives voices will be overwhelmed in the media barrage.

And they know that it will horribly punish the Republicans in the November election. How do they know this?

When Bill Clinton *refused* to sign the budget bills passed by congress, *he* and the Democrats were not blamed for the resulting government shut-down, the Republicans were.

As a filthy, underhanded scheme, it worked.

The Democrats are basically holding the US HOSTAGE to get what they want. And until both the House and Senate, and hopefully the presidency are in Republican hands, they will get away with it.

So don’t curse John Boehner. He really is stuck, and there’s not a dang thing he can do about it, other than what has been done for FOUR YEARS, to pass yet another continuing resolution.

Yes, sometimes the bad guys win for a while.


4 posted on 07/26/2012 1:02:32 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: maggiesnotebook

Much ado about nothing. There are plenty of real things to worry about.


5 posted on 07/26/2012 2:08:28 PM PDT by arrogantsob (Obama must Go. Sarah herself supports Romney.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

“When Bill Clinton *refused* to sign the budget bills passed by congress, *he* and the Democrats were not blamed...”

That was prior to the alternative media. A savvy Republican Leadership would know this.

We the People would back them to the hilt...in all the communities across the country.

Except their DC staffers...in their lifetime sinecures in side the beltway...would get the shaft for not making sure the boys and girls they sold on K St stayed bought.


6 posted on 07/26/2012 2:12:04 PM PDT by mo (If you understand, no explanation is needed. If you don't understand, no explanation is possible.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

What the GOP should do...
Is send the senate multiple budget resolutions.
Break the budget apart by department and send budget resolutions by department as well.

Then when the senate elections come up, the house should run advertisements listing what they tried to do and that the Democrat senate blocked every attempt to adopt a budget and get spending under control.

They can make this issue a loser for the democrats, but they have to get the message out despite the MSM news.


7 posted on 07/26/2012 2:36:10 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: maggiesnotebook

I searched Amazon for the Maggie Snot E-book but found nothing.

I guess it’s just a blog.


8 posted on 07/26/2012 2:40:56 PM PDT by humblegunner (Pablo, being wily, pities the fool.)
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To: DannyTN; mo

If Boehner wanted to do this, or thought he could get away with it, he would have tried it two years ago, when the Republicans took the House. But in addition to all the other problems, there are far too many RINOs in the senate that would refuse to fight Harry.

After the elections, however, more of them will be gone.

There is one twist, however, that might be useful. Harry really tried to write a check that he couldn’t cash by threatening that if the Democrats keep control of the senate, they will end the filibuster.

In the senate, that is real fighting talk. And though the Republicans didn’t say anything, they cannot ignore a threat like that. If they had chutzpah, they would agree with Harry, and do the same if the Republicans get the senate. This would utterly neuter the Democrats, but it would likewise be an act of war.

The trouble is, that once you do something like that, how do you stop it and restore the filibuster? Without it, the majority party totally rules the senate, and the minority gets nothing.


9 posted on 07/26/2012 4:34:54 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: maggiesnotebook

Don’t worry Tammy Faye will make sure the money faucet stays open.


10 posted on 07/26/2012 5:34:22 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: humblegunner

:-)


11 posted on 07/28/2012 8:47:06 AM PDT by maggiesnotebook
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