Posted on 07/30/2013 4:29:48 PM PDT by onyx
Shutting down the federal government would not stop the Obama administration from implementing its signature healthcare law, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Tuesday.
Coburn has been sharply critical of the effort to force a government shutdown over ObamaCare funding. He released a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report Tuesday that said such a move would not actually stop the administration from implementing the healthcare law.
"The memo reveals that if government were shut down, funding for Obamacare would still continue," Coburn's office said in a summary. "In other words, shutting down the federal government does not shut down Obamacare."
The CRS report notes that much of the administration's implementation funding comes from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) itself not from the spending bills some conservatives are threatening to defeat.
"It appears that substantial ACA implementation might continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a temporary government shutdown," the CRS said.
Congress has already denied the administration's requests for more money to help implement the healthcare law, forcing the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to scrape together funding from other accounts. HHS could keep piecing together funding during a shutdown, according to the CRS.
"It seems likely that the Administration will continue to rely on alternative sources of funding to support ACA implementation activities," the report states.
Shutting down the federal government would stop the IRS from collecting the law's taxes and penalties, and people subject to the individual mandate would still accrue fines for the time they spent uninsured during a shutdown, the report said.
Coburn is among the Senate Republicans who have pushed back strongly against efforts to shut down the government unless a bill to keep it open defunds ObamaCare.
"Ive been here when weve done that, and its not a strategy that works," Coburn told The Washington Post. "This is misleading the conservative base because its not achievable, and all it will do in the long run is dispirit the base. This is a failed strategy for conservatives."
Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have spearheaded a push to possibly shut down the government. They say conservatives should refuse to support a bill to keep the government open unless it also defunds ObamaCare.
This post was updated at 3:41 p.m.
What would you do without Free Republic?
These traitors just dance around the head of a pin. Attach a simple amendment to a larger bill defunding all of obamacare funding. Mark Levin laid it out last night. The when we have the majority we repeal obamacare. This is just sleight of hand by the gop/e.
Ugh Coburn is really pissing me off.
Congress can defund anything they want. What is Coburn smoking?
Exactly. Shut down 0bamafraud by defunding it. The rest of the budget is addressed separately. It will be difficult if not impossible to excise the cancer once it fully kicks in next year.
Are we all missing how the GOP has completely turned against us? The question is, will we be lemmings.
Cruz is the ONLY bright spot. Now there’s a leader.
It would be a PR bonanza for Obama. By the time his machine and the MSM got through with the Republicans the’red be be nothing left. Say hello to speaker Pelosi.
Defund obamacare
Primary this decrepit RINO out of office.
Sadly, we are never going to have the majority. That ship has sailed.
What isn’t a PR bonanza for Obama?
So I guess we just lay down and give up then. No. We get the real truth out before it is too late.
The truth is that everything else would be funded and if Obama wants to shut down the government only for Obamacare. Let him do it.
The GOP is dead. Game, set and match to the Marxist.
Implement all of 0bamacare immediately. People need to feel the heat to see the light. Or to use another metaphor - the sooner the train wrecks, the sooner we can clear the tracks.
Heh. Except don’t suppositories come in a different type of package!?
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