Leaping headfirst onto the nihilist bandwagon.
You might think that House Speaker John Boehner was thinking realistically about how to keep the government funded when the inevitable happens, when the Senate sends back to it a continuing resolution that has stripped out the Obamacare defunding language. A responsible House leader would be trying to figure out how to keep the lights on in the federal government, probably by reaching out to the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, and working to secure Democratic votes for a clean bill. But Boehner is
not a responsible House leader.
House GOP leaders are warning they may not simply just take up a continuing resolution funding government operations if Senate Democrats strip out language defunding Obamacare.
Instead, House Republicans could either sit on the bill — which is unlikely, as that would lead to a government shutdown — or insert other, more onerous provisions into the $986 billion continuing resolution or CR, and then send that revised package back to the Senate.
One of the proposals that House Republican leaders are considering would bar the federal government from making its employer contribution to the health care plan for lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides, an issue of huge—but politically sensitive—importance to many members and staff. [...]
“Don’t assume that just because it comes out of the Senate, it’s going to go the [House] floor as is,” warned Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), the chief deputy majority whip.
Nope, Republicans aren't done with the games, though their staff might be a little peeved by this since it's their livelihoods at stake. In fact,
last I heard, Republican staffers were working with Democratic aides in the Senate to make sure this idea "goes down in flames." Because, unlike their bosses, they can't afford to lose the employer subsidy of their insurance premiums.
Never mind that, the teabaggers want their shutdown. House Republican leadership seems determined to give it to them.
Stand with Daily Kos and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in denouncing Republicans who would completely shut down the government just to destroy Obamacare.