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.
"I’ve been here when we’ve done that, and it’s not a strategy that works," Coburn told The Washington Post. "This is misleading the conservative base because it’s 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.
OK, shut it down anyway. The GOP has the votes in the House to shut it down permanently. Just do it.
Obamecare is going to be a wreck. Let the dems own it. If your opponents on fire stand back. Shutting down the government would be lighting ourselves on fire.
No.
If the Repubs can be falsely blamed for the shutdown then they could be falsely blamed for anything.
It's time to stand up for the truth and let the chips fall where they may....or say hello to certain defeat.
I am confused.
If obumbler is going to fund obumbler care through the Affordable Care Act, then why can’t the house defund the Affordable Care Act, what ever that is.
The conservatives have two courses of action open to them.
One is to defund everything that could be used to stop obumbler care.
The other is to force through the courts the immediate implementation of obumbler care. If the dims refuse, then the house needs to get the courts to declare the entire act null and void because the law was not written with the inclusion of a severability clause.
Old C you are right about de-funding. Why not defund HHS if that’s where the money comes from?
Option 3 for conservatives: Leave the GOP. Let it die. Build a new party based on principles. Lose for a while, but it can’t get any worse.
“What isn’t a PR bonanza for Obama?”
Obama could go on TV, take a dump on the original copy of the Constitution, wipe himself with an American flag and the press, plus half of our population would be amused.
That said, we conservatives must still fight for values and what is right. Start by giving up on the RINOs and the RNC.
Obamacare was deemed a tax, taxes can be repealed.
Yes but they cannot pass it through the Senate and they cannot override a veto so we must defund it and then repeal it when we have the numbers. It is the only way or we will be stuck with it... rats created it and rinos enforced it. Cruz says we have 60 days and then it is permananet.
LLS
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