Wrong. Boehner, Ryan, et al, have proven they are incapable of winning the debt ceiling battle. They will cave in a New York minute, just like last time.
"Very few Republicans privately believe Obama will agree to delay the entirety of Obamacare for any length of time, but there is much discussion he may go for delaying the individual mandate, the medical-device tax, or other unpopular provisions."
Wrong again. We don't need Obama's agreement or approval to defund. If the House doesn't cave and pass a bill funding ObamaCare, there is no bill for him to approve. They should hold the line and reject whatever the senate sends back, then begin passing a series of bills to fund individual departments, agencies and programs one at a time.
Pass bills to fund the "essential" departments, agencies and programs only. Social security, medicare, the military, the federal courts, the congress, the post office, the patents and copyrights office, the mint, the border patrol, a minimal IRS tax processing and collection agency (no funds to be used for non-income tax functions), etc, but zero for the unconstitutional ObamaCare. And who is the final arbiter of what's constitutional? We the people, of course. We nullify it through our elected reps.
And zero for the federal departments of commerce, agriculture, labor, energy, transportation, health, education, welfare, housing, the EPA, the DEA, etc., etc. All of these functions are reserved to the states and the people per the constitution.
Some of these essential agencies are automatically funded anyway, so all really essential government services will continue. Let Obama/Reid shut the rest of it down if they wish. They'll lose big in 2014/16.
Bachmann: ObamaCare will either be defunded or delayed