Posted on 07/27/2013 7:42:45 AM PDT by xzins
The effort to stop the further implementation of Obamacare that Utah’s principled limited government constitutional conservative Republican Senator Mike Lee got rolling is starting to gather steam at the grassroots, with conservative commentator and talk radio superstar Mark Levin, the Club for Growth, Heritage Action and Freedom Works all weighing-in to support of Lee’s effort.
Yet the Senate Republican leadership, especially Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have been using every behind the scenes tactic they can muster to spike the effort of conservatives to defund Obamacare.
This ain’t rocket science, all it takes, as Senator Lee observed, is for Republicans to vote NO.
"If Republicans in both houses simply refuse to vote for any continuing resolution that contains further funding for further enforcement of Obamacare, we can stop it. We can stop the individual mandate from going into effect," Lee told "Fox & Friends."
Lee’s key point is that withholding money from further enforcement and implementation of Obamacare and would not affect the portions of the law already in effect, including provisions on pre-existing conditions and children being able to stay on their parents' plans until age 26.
Lee’s goal – and it is one we heartily endorse – is to take-out the individual mandate.
"We're talking about the individual mandate, the exchanges," Lee said according to NewsMax. "That's what Americans are afraid of. That's what's causing premiums to skyrocket. And that's what we've got to stop through this effort of don't fund it."
"This movement is going to continue to build because the American people understand the president is not following the law," Lee said. "The American people shouldn't be required to fund it."
"We already knew that Obamacare was going to be unaffordable. Now we know it's going to be unfair as well because the president is rewriting it not just once, but twice, by telling us that he's not going to enforce the employer mandate, but leave individuals on the hook," as NewsMax reported Lee putting it.
What we don’t understand is with a broad coalition of Republican Senators behind the idea – from longtime Members like Chuck Grassley, to establishment leaders like John Thune, to “boat rocking” conservatives like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz – why hasn’t Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signed on?
The reluctance of the Senate Republican leadership to draw a line in the sand and join conservatives like Lee, Paul and Cruz to stand against Obamacare is even more puzzling when one looks at the results of the latest CBS News poll on the issue.
The new CBS News poll found that more Americans than ever want Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) repealed.
According to the poll, 36 percent of Americans want Congress to expand or keep the health care law while 39 percent want Congress to repeal it - the highest percentage seen in CBS News polls. The poll also found a majority of Americans - 54 percent - disapprove of the health care law, 36 percent of Americans approve of it and 10 percent said they don't know about it.
The poll also found just 13 percent of Americans say the health care law will personally "help me" while 38 percent said they believe the law will personally "hurt me."
Setting aside that it is the right thing to do for the country, those numbers are running two and three to one in favor of Republicans gaining a political advantage by fighting implementation of Obamacare.
No one knows for sure why McConnell, Wisconsin’s Senator Ron Johnson and others are opposed to Lee’s effort, because, as usual McConnell and the Republican establishment are operating from the shadows, using behind the scenes political pressure instead of actually engaging in an open debate based on conservative principles about the merits of the strategy to defund Obamacare, rather than the usual Capitol Hill Republican say one thing, do another culture.
Any Republican, starting with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who chooses to fund Obamacare should be primaried.
Republicans, by voting to fund Obamacare, are putting people out of work, driving up healthcare costs, and hurting families. Republicans are not listening to voters who hate the law if they fund Obamacare.
With 54 percent of those polled telling CBS that they disapprove of Obamacare and 38 percent saying they expect to be personally hurt by the Obamacare law, the advertisements in those Republican primaries, as Erick Erickson said, write themselves.
If McConnell disappeared form Senate “leadership”, who would even notice?
He is always trying to find his men so he can lead them?
In borrowing this phrase from Dr. Philips the author of the book of similar name, one was tempted to write, "the coming conservative crackup" but that would not be accurate. The Republican Party, not the conservative movement, is facing the crackup simply because the conservatives have nothing to lose and the Republicans have everything to lose.
In the conservative worldview the governing class in Washington operates roughly the same whether Democrats or Republicans are in control. Therefore there is no downside risk to conservatives in campaigning for conservative values. What is the downside? More of the same. What is the upside of a Republican/rino victory? More of the same. At worse, conservatives see Democrat victories only shortening a timeline to the same inevitable national disaster. Republicans only marginal value to conservatives at this point is that they might buy time.
But the Republican elite has everything to lose. Their objective, conservatives have now come to believe, is not to pursue conservative governance but to selfishly maintain themselves in office. That is why Republican elitists are appalled at the idea of shutting down the funding for Obamacare. Sen. Coburn, for example, fears that a shutdown of Obamacare funding will inevitably tip into a shutdown of the government generally. This need not be true if the continuing resolution is properly structured so that essential government services, or indeed all government services, are provided for except Obamacare-and inferring from Sen. Coburn's remarks, only that portion of Obamacare which is not funded by mandatory spending.
Red-blooded conservatives who frequent these threads do not believe that the elitists, Sen. Coburn to be counted among them, are right when they predict that a shutdown will redound to a disastrous Republican defeat at the polls. So, yes even if that belief is honestly held by Republican elitists like Dr. Coburn, what is fundamentally dishonest is that there is no real desire on the part of the Republican elite to repeal Obamacare, to close the border, to cut spending, or to rationalized the tax system. At best they will tinker at the margins and at worst they will act dishonestly as faux opponents of the Democrats so that they can appeal to the conservative base as saviors. These elitists owe their electoral existence to the threat to conservatism represented by Democrats and they will contrive to shamelessly appeal to well-meaning Republican voters on that basis.
Conservatives believe that without these reforms the Republic is inevitably destined to plunge over the fiscal cliff. Whether true or not, conservatives have now become convinced that elitist Republicans do not share their sense of danger. Many are convinced that the Republican establishment are too selfishly concerned with protecting their offices to do their patriotic duty.
So in this showdown between conservatives and Republican elitists, the conservatives have nothing to lose and the Republicans have all that they dearly value at risk.
It is probable that the elite will be able to beat off this movement to defund Obamacare in the upcoming continuing resolution. I do not see how they can do so and avoid a subsequent rupture in the party. The reality is, if only conservatives will embrace it, that the elitists need us but in the desperate circumstances in which honest Americans find themselves today, conservatives do not the need Republican Party. If John Boehner loses his speakership, will the Republic sink? If Mitch McConnell loses even more ground for his party in the Senate, will conservatism find itself even more beleaguered? We conservatives are already living the downside.
By way of full disclosure I have been a longtime opponent of any third party reform movement. I base this on a historical understanding of the American constitutional system with its winner-take-all system which in turn produces a two-party system. We have not had a successful splinter party since the Whigs and, ultimately, third-party breakaways serve only to hand power to the very party they most oppose. However, history tells us that when the issue was big enough, and in the 1850s slavery was a big issue, a breakaway party prevailed. Obamacare is a very big issue but probably not enough to galvanize the electorate. That will come as we are in freefall over the fiscal Cliff.
[This reply was just posted on a companion thread]
This would not be surprising. Lots of businesses would love to not have to offer health care and push people into a government run system. Your health care is being ping-ponged between the efforts of ideologues and of special interests with economic incentives.
What you say may be true, but we can’t really know that for sure. There’s no real investigative journalism by the big players anymore, so it’s also unlikely that we’ll ever have proof that Senator McConnell is benefiting from Obamacare.
Frankly, I don’t care why he’s not fighting to defund Obamacare. Does it really matter. It’s just like Senator Ryan and illegal immigration. He claims he wants an amnesty (he won’t call it that BTW) for non-political reasons. He claims he believes strongly that it’s the right, moral thing to do. OK. Fine. So what? Amnesty still sucks, and we need to oppose it. It simply means we have to elect someone else, because Ryan is not going to do what we want.
Still, it’s a puzzlement that people are so willing to destroy the country for personal gain
I mean, we might not survive obamacare as Detroit shows, and for the same reason
But we can not survive illegalimmigration, not mentioning that the libs themselves wee the ones screechinh in favor of abortion for population control in th 1970s
But these people are a puzzlement as they swear to God Himself to protect the Constitution and He will ask them individually when they stand for judgment what thwy did with that. It’s NOT as if God doesn’t want our constitution protected, giving people a LEGAL refuge for religious and moral freedom
This life is 100 years at the most. Hell is eternity with no fu, money nor power
The puzzlement is the stark lack of logic that runs the lives of RINOs
Libs are mentally disordered and have an excuse for their lack of logic they are practicing pagans who worship licentiousness and abortion
The puzzlement is their enablers RINOs
I’ll have to take issue with this.
“Grassroots Conservatives” do not all advocate defunding Obamacare without a replacement ready to roll-out.
We do not have a current replacement ready to roll-out.
Until we have a current replacement (and not just a return to the previous mess) we have nothing, except the single most powerful issue against our side, which Obama has had yet.
Either FIX healthcare, or leave it alone.
Please we do not want back, what we had before.
0bama will shut it down. He simply will not accept defunding. He would die first.
As long as Lee understands that and will play to it, I’m ok with this threat. When it comes to crunch time, just explain that 0bama is willing to shut the gov’t down and [insert random anti-shut down arguement] to save this monster of a law - that he is holding each American hostage by threatening to shut down gov’t to save the law that people don’t want. Explain that we are not going to hurt America by shutting down and that we’ll have to win some elections to get rid of 0bamacare.
But please don’t just play into 0bama’s hands and allow him to get repubs blamed for shutting down the gov’t. It’s plain as day that he won’t give in on this - so we shouldn’t go ahead unless we plan on shutting it down and for taking the blame.
We do have the upper hand on debt ceiling negotiations though - we’ve followed thru on our threat once already in those negotiations hence the sequester.
===============================================
Planned Parenthood Will Run Federal Data Hub With Private Patient Info
by Elise Hilton | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | FR Posted by smoothsailing
EXCERPT Enter the Federal Data Hub, w/ govt access to “reams of personal information compiled by federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the DOD.....navigated by an army of “patient navigators.”
The federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the republic,” Paul Howard of the Manhattan Institute and Stephen T. Parente, a U of Minnesota finance professor, wrote in USA Today. No wonder that there are concerns about everything from identity theft to the ability of navigators to use the system to register Obamacare participants to vote.
And….....it gets even worse. One group acting as “patient navigators” will be Planned Parenthood: Planned Parenthood is among the long list of…organizations that are expected to receive taxpayer-funded navigator grants. The navigator grants would further enable Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America, to continue its misuse of taxpayer dollars to [supplement] their big abortion business,” said Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), who says she wants to eliminate the navigator program — for which $54 million in funds will be made available — even without a Planned Parenthood link because it’s ‘ripe for fraud and abuse’, violations of privacy and identity theft.
The navigators will receive 20-30 hours of online training on the 1200 page Obamacare law, and some feel that isn’t enough, likening it to “giving someone a first-aid course and then making him a med-school professor.” In addition, some lawmakers say that the standards set by HHS could allow felons to access info----the entire system is open to fraud and corruption. House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan says this is a hugely under-reported story, and that the Data Hub is a “danger to civil liberties.” ......we can all say good-bye to the shreds of privacy we have left.
SOURCE http://www.lifenews.com/2013/07/25/planned-parenthood-will-run-federal-data-hub-with-private-patient-info/
Interesting post nathanbedford - and I agree with it all but I think there is an omission that is important...
If the House writes a good bill just without funding for 0bamacare, 0bama will simply veto. He absolutely nothing to lose. First, 0bamacare is everything to him. He will not give it up. Second, Repubs will be blamed for the subsequent shutdown. So imo 0bama wants this to happen - he wants a shutdown. It’s about the only thing that can pull his party out of the low ratings they’ve got just before midterms.
However, if there are enough votes to override his veto GO FOR IT!!!!!
Let’s hope it does take McConnell out.
I was going to post some of this, but you said it all. BRAVO!
I will echo your sentiments to all the whiny folk who come on with this “GOP is dead to me” and “real conservatives should form a third party” etc. Our party is still there and it’s the GOP. The GOP is a grass roots organization and begins at the county level. Small government people selected as delegates in the district and state conventions will change the national leadership.
Please don’t send the RNC any money until it changes. That is fine. Take over your county by attending monthly meetings and voting in a bloc. Same for the district level. Then move up to the state level. We have been doing just this in Georgia, small government people uniting. The Liberty Caucus is working with Social Conservatives. The next election for state officers should do it! Libertarians are adopting pro life and border enforcement stances (without life, liberty doesn’t much matter). Social Conservatives are realizing the police state required to keep everyone sober will destroy the first, second, third, fourth and fifth amendments, and will soon turn into war on Christianity. The recent and ongoing NSA and IRS scandals are presenting a golden opportunity to evangelize this message.
Big Government is Bad Government, and the leviathan State cannot withstand a population united for Liberty. Only through Almighty God is man perfectable, NOT THROUGH GOVERNMENT. Unity where we agree, Liberty where we differ, and Charity for all is the path for victory.
Time to stand for FREE America...shut it down.
One has to presume that he will, as you suggest, and then one should wait and see whom fortune favors. The media, of course, will side with the president. The problem is that much of the Republican Party will side with the president, in fact they already have done so. But the Republicans at this point would not be out of bullets, they can send additional supplemental resolutions to the president's desk, or to the Senate, which address whatever objections are raised collateral to Obamacare. In other words, the Republicans can generate activity designed to make them look engaged.
Conservatives believe that there will be no other chance to stop Obamacare. One must consider the dimension of Obamacare, one out of every seven dollars which changes hands in America is for healthcare and will be controlled by this act-or rather it will be controlled by God knows what kind of regulations which are drawn under this act. Soon, subsidies will kick in and it will be impossible to tear out Obamacare from the culture, it would be akin to repealing Social Security.
So, conservatives believe that it is now or never.
It is not a given that Republicans will prevail in the next election if they simply sit on their hands until then. Many Republicans thought that the country could not possibly reelect Obama in 2012 and we were rudely disabused. One might say that we did the elitists' bidding in 2012, we nominated the Rino, the man who had passed Obamacare in Massachusetts, the man who ran a better campaign than John McCain except in one respect, there was no real attack on Obama personally. There was no explicit articulation of the profound fiscal threat facing the country.
As recently as this week Sarah Palin has complained that her hands were tied in the 2008 campaign and she was not allowed to attack Obama for his radical roots. Romney followed suit. Now, we are to go down this route one more time-why will we expect a different result?
You say we should expect a different result because of the results in 2010? But what was the Republican victory in 2010 based upon? Opposition to Obamacare!
I for one am certainly not “whining” and I resent the implication. I am frigging mad-dog mad! Mad at spineless
Republican leaders who will not lead. Mad at those that always prop up that same old “we’ll lose big time next time” if we do this or that.
At this point I do not care! I’d rather be rid of our Republican leadership and enablers in the Senate and House of Representatives more than I care about ObamaCare or a frigging budget or who gets blame.
I’d rather be part of a party of principles than to have to suffer each agonizing, embarrassing and pitiful leadership attempt by Boehner and McConnell that ends in capitulation and less freedom for me. I don’t want a third party, but I am more than willing to decimate mine to rid it of appeasing elitists. Count on it.
Don’t decimate it. Help be part of the tumor that takes over from the inside. Please get involved at the county level. Expect to get your ass handed to you a few times. Keep at it. It will work.
I’m mad too, but join with other like minded folk and please work within the GOP system. The tools are there.
If the repubs can get a CR thru without funding 0bamacare I’m all in for it.
Indeed there is more opposition to 0-care than ever. It could well be that Rs could successfully outmaneuver dems with a number of dems willing to defect.
Interesting times.
Do you think the Rs can successfully navigate a CR thru both houses without funding for 0-care hence forcing 0bama’s hand to veto/shut-down or accept defunding of his legacy?
Do you think a protracted/lengthy shutdown results in defunding of 0bamacare?
Thanks NB. Each of us must maintain a local party focus to eventually correct the national party problem.
I just hope we have the time. One thing is for sure, every individual who gets mad and quits only lengthens the time this will require.
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