Republicans have made a show of threatening to shut down the government if they don't get their way and get to defund Obamacare. Conservatives are threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue until they get their way. But it seems there are some level headed Republicans in Congress who realize the futility of such an action. Sen. Tom Cole has called the effort a temper tantrum.
Republicans in the House and Senate are working to corner colleagues into withholding support for keeping government open after the lights go out on Sept. 30 unless Obamacare is defunded. And a growing number of pragmatic conservatives — in and out of Congress — recognize that’s a suicide mission that threatens the GOP’s credibility as well as its electoral prospects ahead of a promising midterm election.
Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina has called it the 'dumbest idea he's ever heard of'.
“Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act is going to be law.
(As if Obama being President is the only thing keeping the law in place, but hey it's a start).
Even conservative columnists like Ramesh Ponnuru and Byron York have derided the idea of shutting down the government in an attempt to defund Obamacare. Byron York explains in painstaking detail why it will never happen. Where the money to fund it comes from, what Congress would have to do to change it, and the impossibility of getting 67 votes in the Senate to override a veto. So why the push? According to a Senate aide who supports defunding, it's all for show:
So why the push? "We have to try," says the Senate aide. "Having this fight will show the people who sent us here that we are a party of principle. And after we lose this fight, all of our guys are going to have an issue that we can run on and win."
Of course, just 11 Republicans -- Rubio, Cruz, Risch, Paul, Inhofe, Vitter, Thune, Chiesa, Enzi, Fischer, and Grassley -- signed Sen. Lee's defunding pledge. That's about one-quarter of the Senate's Republican caucus. Undaunted, defunders say that big victories -- like the anti-gun control effort -- also started small.
But there's a difference between killing proposed legislation and stopping a law that is already in effect. And Republicans have run out of ways to stop Obamacare. The only way that will happen now is if the law proves to be a disaster that even its supporters abandon. Like everyone else, Republicans will just have to wait to see what happens.
So 11 Republicans are wasting taxpayer money and everyone's time on efforts that they know are doomed to fail, all to please their base. This is hostage taking of the government. There is work to be done to get America working and all they do is throw a wrench into the works. Finally President Obama has
called out the obstructionist Republicans in the House but there is much
more to be done.