Summer is waning and the annual Washington budget battle season is upon us again. This usually means that Senate Democrats and French Republicans will submit a series of meaningless budget proposals, counter-proposals and counter-counter proposals that amount to ….nothing.That’s why Congress has failed to pass a legitimate budget as required by the Constitution for the past three years. That is a national disgrace.
This budget season has an air of real opportunity, however. The specific opportunity before Congress is defunding ObamaCare.
ObamaCare is a growing menace to the very fabric of American life and must defunded by any and all legislative means possible. If that means linking it to raising the debt ceiling, so be it. If that means restricting government operations (shut down) for a few weeks, let’s do it. Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint said “The real act of courage is if they [lawmakers] get back in September and pass a bill that funds all operations of the government except ObamaCare.” Amen.
Even El Presidente Obama recognizes the folly of his monstrous law. He granted numerous unconstitutional waivers, exceptions and delays to unions and selective businesses. He even worked some Executive Order backroom skullduggery to exempt Congress from the very Law it passed. In other words Obama, Dimocrats and French Republicans (The Ruling Class) can avoid the heavy burden of ObamaCare that the rest of America (The Country Class) must endure. Another national disgrace.
Republicans…especially Tea Party Republicans …should be running around with their hair on fire about these pre-French Revolution tactics. Instead we hear nothing but the sounds of silence. There are 233 Republicans in the House but only 80 (34%) formally demanded that Boehner link defunding with the Budget. There are a few people of good faith and courage, however. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) are spearheading the effort to defund. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), The Heritage Club and Tea Party for Growth also want to use that approach.
The Conservative Party also rejects the false notion that ObamaCare is settled law. Obama delayed, exempted and purposely fails to enforce critical parts of his Law for short-term political gain. That doesn’t feel like “settled law” to us. If the President can pick and choose which parts of the Law to enforce then Congress can, too. Hell, Congress wrote the Law after all. Defund the IRS enforcement provision. Defund that silly corps of Navigators. Defund the whole damn thing within a Continuing Resolution that funds the rest of the government like Jim DeMint suggested.
If the Senate fails to pass that House budget then it’s the Democrats who will be responsible for a government down time. The GOP must not be afraid (they’re always afraid) to get blamed for a shutdown. Don’t take the blame, take the credit. It will be healthy for the federal government to cease operations for a few days if it helps staunch the flow of red ink. Sequester was a good start. But House Republicans must resist their normal tendency to blink when the pressure mounts. They must chain any Continuing Resolution (CR) or Debt Ceiling vote directly to defunding ObamaCare. Make no “tweaks” or “corrections” or “fixes’. Don’t mend it, end it. In this instance of legislation, if Republicans don’t break it, they own it.
If ObamaCare is rightly dumped on the ash heap of history then CP-USA can offer some basic solutions for an alternative Bill. They include: removing antitrust exemptions for health insurance corporations; allowing companies to offer health and dental insurance across state borders; enacting sensible tort reforms that reduce medical liability premiums for doctors and hospitals; providing “no-interest” student loans to attend medical/dental schools to help increase the pool of qualified doctors and nurses; retaining the right of parents to keep children on their policies if they can afford it; retaining the right to get insurance with a pre-existing condition at market prices; creating personal Health Saving Accounts; allowing the free market to set prices and profits; reducing taxes on medical devices manufactured in the U.S.
Help the Conservative Party elect common sense conservatives. Just like Senator Ted Cruz, CP-USA does not blink.
