Ed Morrissey:
According to Reuters, at least, the House Republican caucus has settled on a new strategy to fight ObamaCare — and on new ground. The caucus has decided to shift away on a defunding strategy based on a continuing resolution needed by the weekend to keep government funded, and instead tied the debt-ceiling raise needed by October 17th to an agreement to delay the rest of the ObamaCare mandates for one year:
Republicans in the House of Representatives will demand a one-year delay of full implementation of the 2010 healthcare law known as Obamacare in its opening offer to increase the U.S. debt limit, their leaders announced on Thursday.
Earlier today, John Boehner rejected Barack Obama’s refusal to negotiate on a debt-ceiling raise, telling the media, “It doesn’t work that way.” Obama should know better; he negotiated on the debt ceiling in 2011, for instance, and voted against a similar hike in 2006 as a Senator during the Bush administration. When he claimed that Republican demands for negotiations amounted to extortion and were unprecedented, the Washington Post slapped him with four Pinocchios for the claim.
The shift in battlegrounds for Republican caucuses in both chambers had been noted earlier by Politico:
A large number of Senate and House Republicans are raising the threat of a debt default to curtail, delay or defund President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement. It’s a major gamble — risking the prospect of a first-ever default on U.S. debt — but it’s one seriously being considered by the same Republicans who have refused to join Cruz’s filibuster attempt of the stopgap spending bill to keep the government running.
“I think the debt ceiling is a good opportunity … to defund or at least delay,” said Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, who opposed his Texas colleague’s tactics on the spending bill. “I’m for delay, defund, repeal, demolish, destroy, whatever the ‘d’ is, when it comes to Obamacare — I’m for.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who dubbed Cruz’s threat to shut down the government over Obamacare the “dumbest idea” he’d ever heard, said Congress shouldn’t give Obama a debt ceiling increase without attaching strings, and the president “is going to pay some price for it, which is a benefit for the American people.”
“I hope [an Obamacare] delay is either part of the next [continuing resolution] or I hope it’s part of the debt ceiling,” Burr said.
Byron York also reported earlier that the predictable failure of the all-or-nothing defunding strategy had Republicans on Capitol Hill thinking about more subtle ways to impact ObamaCare and other priorities:
Pat Buchanan put for a very good idea on Greta’s FOX show. His suggestion was for the House to send multiple piecemeal CR funding bills separately and make the Senate vote individually if they wanted to fund: The Military….The FBI…Social Security…etc for everything, every government agency, department and program except Obamacare.
Ditto
hi,
they should not sling arrows among themselves, it give munitions to OBAMA
TO SEE THE RIDGE AND WORK ON IT,
THEY democrats are all sticking together as a bunch of afraid of OBAMA REVENGE, BUT THEY GET ALL THE SAME CRITIC, it doesn touch them personaly as their WHOLE profile is taking the insult ,
which IF affect one, is more , than affecting the whole party who can better take the hit take the hit together AS A PARTY,,
I know they all are super smart CONSERVATIVES AND CAN THINK INDIVIDUALY BUT IT PLAY AGAINST THEM IF ONE IS TARGET SPECIFICLY LKE THE INSULTS WHERE HITTING THOSE WHO HAD THE GUTS TO ACT ON THAT SHOWING A LOT OF COURAGE TO STAND FOR WHAT IS RIGHT,
and the good part of it is when they all rallies as one to VOTE AND support the front guys,
except the PETER KING BULLY AND THE JOHN McCAIN WHO SEPARATED THEMSELVES FROM
TED CRUX, THE OTHER WHERE UNITED AND WHEN THE LEADER BOEMER came in front that was very helfull too, IT WAS THE STRONG SUPPORT carrying a lot of weigth,
it made a hit for AMERICANS WHO FOR THE FIRST TIME FELT THE SUPPORT WAS MEANT FOR THEM ONLY, AND THEY WON’T FORGET ,