Obamacare Showdown

A showdown is coming to Washington and the question on everyone’s minds is: What will Republican leadership do when the time comes?

On September 30, 2013, the continuing resolution that has funded the federal government since March 2013 will expire.

Will Republican leaders hold closed-door meetings and cut a deal with President Obama and Joe Biden that covers their political hide but throws American taxpayers under the bus?

Or will they stand firm and fight for the conservative values they claim to represent?

If past is prologue, we should expect more backroom deals and empty gestures. But as our national debt marches towards $17 trillion, we don’t have the luxury of back-room deals. Now is not the time for timidity. It is the time for temerity.

Thank goodness for the likes of Senators Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and their gang of Senate conservatives who seem to be the only ones prepared to grab the helm.

Sen. Lee has introduced a letter pledging to defund Obamacare as part of the negotiations over the government’s funding for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1, 2013 – the same day Obamacare is scheduled to go into affect. He and his fellow signatories have pledged not to vote for any spending bill that includes funding for Obamacare.

To date, 10 Republican senators have signed Sen. Lee’s letter.

On the House side, Rep. Tom Graves of Georgia has introduced legislation pledging to defund Obamacare that has 138 cosponsors. At the same time, more than 60 Republicans have signed onto a letter circulated by Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina urging Speaker Boehner to defund Obamacare when Congress funds the government in September.

But where are Speaker John Boehner and Minority Mitch McConnell in all this?

Speaker Boehner has refused to stake out a position. “No decisions have been made on how we’re going to proceed,” he declared at a weekly press conference.

On the Senate side, McConnell hasn’t done much better. In fact, he has actively tried to convince Republican senators to remove their names from Sen. Lee’s letter, and five senators have fallen prey to his politics of intimidation. When asked if he will fight to defund Obamacare as part of the funding debate, he has simply refused to answer the question. In Washington, apparently, this is what passes for “leadership.”

But we don’t have the luxury of waiting for our Republican leadership to get their act together. Time is running out, and press releases and practiced rhetoric will not suffice. We need action.

As Sen. Mike Lee points out, this is our last and best chance to eliminate Obamacare. Obamacare is tremendously unpopular, and if we cannot repeal it – due to the political realities in Washington – we have a responsibility to defund it.

If implemented, Obamacare will sink our economy right at the moment when it is finally inching towards recovery. The increased mandates, higher taxes, and thousands of pages in new regulations will stifle economic growth in this country. Not to mention, the doubling of Obamacare’s projected costs will destroy any budgetary restraints that have been put in place.

Objections to Obamacare aren’t just coming from businesses. Even the unions now understand that ObamaCare is detrimental to their workers and this economy. The president is losing support for this monstrosity daily. He’s had to postpone the implementation of several facets, including the employer mandate portion.

Senator Lee’s move to block any debt ceiling deal or continuing resolution that doesn’t defund and postpone implementation of Obamacare is absolutely the right move for the economy and the American people. And, it’s the right move for the conservative agenda.

If conservatives could pass a continuing resolution that contains the baseline as established by the previous deal, includes the sequestration cuts, and removes funding and implementation of Obamacare, how can the president refuse? Is President Obama willing to shut down the government over the implementation of a Law that he’s already stalled the implementation of because of its unpopularity and damaging economic impacts? Is he willing to shut down the government over a program that the majority of Americans oppose? I think we should find out.

The government funding debate is an opportunity to isolate the president and eliminate Obamacare. And Republicans should grab it.

It is time to find out how much support a lameduck president has with the rank and file members of his party. It is time to find out how many Democratic members of Congress are prepared to follow the president down this road. And finally, it is time to find out, how much courage our own Republican leadership has, or if it has any at all?