Terrific: Conservative Groups Bankrolling Obamacare Attack Ads...Against Republicans

Townhall ^ | 08/20/2013 | Guy Benson

[SeekAndFind]

With President Obama mired in another summer slump and his unpopular healthcare law falling apart at the seams, conservatives doing what they do best: Destroying each other via self-defeating circular firing squad.  Tea Partiers are an indispensable element of America's anti-Statism coalition, but the wisdom of this move is dubious at best.  The Washington Post reports:

A pair of tea party groups is teaming up to pressure key Republicans to support an effort to defund Obamacare.  Tea Party Patriots and the grassroots group For America are launching online ads against a dozen GOP senators who either oppose the effort or haven’t announced a position.  Along with the ads, leaders of the groups will embark on a six-state, five-day “Exempt America” tour (the idea being that the American people should be exempt from Obamacare) that will bring them to the home states of several of these senators. The effort comes as Defund Obamacare – whose supporters pledge not to fund the government if it includes money for the president’s health-care law — struggles to gain the traction it would need to actually force the issue. Several GOP senators have opposed the strategy in no uncertain terms. Through the online ads and the multi-state tour, Tea Party Patriots and For America will accuse such senators of supporting the law if they vote for a budget or a continuing resolution that includes money for Obamacare.

Contra these organizations and Marco Rubio's overheated rhetoric, opposing an ill-fated anti-Obamacare tactic does not make someone a "supporter" of the law.  That's unfair, unhelpful demagoguery.  I've written about this dispute on several occasions and have made my position clear.  Like many conservatives, I have a respectful difference of opinion with the Cruz/Rubio/Lee effort to use the looming Continuing Resolution debate (and its implicit threat of government "shutdown") as the leverage point to try to defund the so-called Affordable Care Act.  In a nutshell, the Democratic Senate simply will not pass a CR that excludes some or all Obamacare funding, and the president would veto any such legislation anyway.  Indeed, Democrats are positively giddy over the prospect of this fight.  As with the fiscal cliff (but unlike the sequester) the law is on their side.  They win by trodding the path of least resistance.  Not only do Republican attempts to strip the law of funding have no chance of succeeding, they would also hand the Left a golden opportunity to conflate (popular) Obamacare opposition with (unpopular) government shutdown.  In response to arguments along these lines, my friends at the Heritage Foundation have produced a new video debunking "myths" regarding the defunding push:

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

I've seen conflicting evidence on the mandatory spending question.  Heritage cites examples wherein some mandatory spending has been rolled back using appropriations bills, while the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has rendered a different verdict -- at least on this somewhat narrow question.  In either case, the likelihood of Republicans successfully zeroing-out Obamacare spending through the CR is nil.  I happen to agree with the contention that it would be Democrats, not Republicans, who would really be responsible for a government shutdown.  But will average Americans buy it?  Polls show that the public is heavily predisposed to blame the smaller-government party for a possible shutdown.  Granted, "shutdown" sounds much scarier than it actually would be, but there's a reason why Republicans caved on it in the 1990s, and undoubtedly would again this fall.  Read Ramesh Ponnuru's thorough debunking of the revisionist history being touted by some as evidence that the GOP would emerge triumphant and relatively unscathed a "shutdown" debate.  Think of it this way: If Republicans have any chance of persuading the public that the conventional wisdom is wrong, and that the president's party is at fault for a shutdown showdown precipitated by Obamacare, they'd need to present a strong united front and over-perform in the ensuing messaging battle.  Does anyone expect that to happen, especially in light of recent evidence?  The best hand Republicans have to play is to use the law's mounting failures against it by forcing Democrats to vote on widely-supported measures such as delaying the mandate tax, repealing IPAB, undoing the outrageous Congressional exemption, and requiring anti-fraud measures be in place prior to roll-out.  Sen. Rand Paul, hardly a shrinking violet 'RINO,' seems to understand this reality: 

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul argued Wednesday that he does not support a shutdown of the federal government in an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act — known as Obamacare —but still wants Republicans to fight for changes in the reform. “I am in favor of using our leverage to make it less bad,” he told reporters...Paul said he would likely oppose a stop-gap spending measure that would not allow government to continue operations unless it sets a course toward balancing the federal budget. He added that while he would prefer to defund Obamacare, “I also know that we don’t control all of the government, so we fight for what we can get.”

Like Paul, I have no issue with conservatives who genuinely believe this is the fight to pick.  I believe they're mistaken, but I share their intense contempt for this law; in fact, the defunding gambit may not be a bad opening posture heading into the upcoming negotiations.  That being said, it's counter-productive madness for conservatives to assail each other at a moment when the other side should be profoundly vulnerable.  Strategic disagreements are fine.  Foolish litmus tests and ultimatums are destructive.  I'll leave you with the latest data from the aforementioned CRS.  Trainwreck:

Forbes' Avik Roy has more on the dysfunction here.

[chris37]

Would not expect anything less of the starving crumb feeder party.

When they can’t get enough scraps from the democrat table, they eat each other.

The GOP is truly sickening.

[TexasCajun]

Scared to do the right thing!

they (Meaning T.E.A. Party Conservatives) would also hand the Left a golden opportunity to conflate (popular) Obamacare opposition with (unpopular) government shutdown

[Spirochete]

That being said, it's counter-productive madness for conservatives to assail each other at a moment when the other side should be profoundly vulnerable.

Conservatives aren't assailing each other. Tea partiers are attacking *statist* Republicans.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Contra these organizations and Marco Rubio's overheated rhetoric, opposing an ill-fated anti-Obamacare tactic does not make someone a "supporter" of the law. That's unfair, unhelpful demagoguery.

No, it's the truth. If you vote for a bill that funds Obamacare, that means you support it. We're through playing games with people who try to tell us what our votes 'really mean'. We'll hold our elected representatives to the same standard, thank you very much.

[Paladin2]

GOP Senators?

It's quite easy to find 12 well deserving of being exposed as 'rats light.

[onedoug]

I am not a Republican. I’m conservative.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Absolutely right. The RINOs are terrified at being found out - and they should be.

[Colonel_Flagg]

We have the ability to hold elected officials accountable. It’s incomprehensible to me why people don’t see that.

P.S. Tell me your s/n is from Wodehouse. :)

[Night Hides Not]

The RNC has gotten to Benson, one of Hugh Hewitt's "young guns."

Another opinion write at Townhall who needs to get out of the DC cocoon.

[Maceman]

I disagree. What is the point of trying to save the Republican Party, if it remains committed to enabling the leftist Democrat agenda?

If America is doomed, as I fear it is, then let it take the Republicans with it when it goes down. Let the country’s collapse happen under the flag of the Democrat leftist one-world government lovers whose key vision for society is that it ought to be managed according to the unrestrained vision of Harvard grads.

The only sliver of a hope that I see is to make it clear to the Republicans that they have no chance of winning if they continue to disenfranchise the base that believes in America’s founding principles and values.

I will not vote for ANY RINO under any circumstances. I voted for Romney and McCain like a good Republican, and what good did that do?

Time for the Republican Party to either return to core values or DIE.

[Ohioan]

How can one vote to fund what is flagrantly unconstitutional? The scare tactic of claiming unpopularity for doing the right thing is just that, a scare tactic. In fact there is a great deal of evidence, that if it is once properly explained, people will actually rally to the principled individual who stands into the breach as it were.

But whether practical or not, honor requires one not to fund an unconstitutional abomination.

See Health Care--The Real Issue.

William Flax

[Yogafist]

“I also know that we don’t control all of the government, so we fight for what we can get.” Like amnesty.

[montag813]

Waste of time. Amnesty is the more urgent threat.

[Mr. Jeeves]

PS: Of course. :)

[SADMILLIE]

The funding of obamacare in the continuing resolution by rinos will destroy the Republican party. Millions of conservatives will politically revolt. But it will finish the party forever if they give amnesty to illegal aliens using the discharge petition trick,which the boehner/cantor rino group intend to do. At that point or shortly thereafter the FREEDOM party will explode into existence.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

This author is not on the ball.

“The sequestration disaster” has proven beyond any doubt that if denied profligate spending, the government has such an astounding quantity of bloat that cutbacks hurt no one — *unless* those cutbacks are *targeted* to hurt the public. And even then, they hardly hurt at all, because “the nerves are buried underneath a huge pile of fat.”

This is an incredibly cynical and mean-spirited abuse of the public, but obeys “bureaucratic rule #1”, that when cuts are threatened, always offer to cut the “meat” first, never the “fat.” Because budgetary “meat” will always have defenders, but if your “fat” is cut, nobody but bureaucrats care.

So what happens during a “government shutdown”? According to the Heritage Foundation:

“The most essential services continue, such as:

(1) providing for national security,
(2) conducting foreign affairs,
(3) providing for the continuity of mandatory benefit payments, and
(4) protecting life and property.

These services include military, law enforcement, veterans care, and others. Social Security checks are still mailed and self-funded agencies like the Postal Service would continue operating.”

In other words, in a tremendous irony, even a government shutdown still allows for far more money than what a national government is *supposed* to do. ALL THE REST is more or less “bloat”. Unconstitutional spending. Waste.

How many of us can say that we were personally hurt by sequestration? Very few, even on the surface. Anyone who was hurt was *intentionally* hurt by the administration, trying to force the public to oppose sequestration.

It demonstrates that though only a tenth of a cent on the budget dollar was sequestered, the administration is so greedy that they became hysterical about it; and so mean that they decided to hurt people. Mass punishment for our having the *gall* to want better management of our money.

So yes, I am all in favor of a “government shutdown” over Obamacare. Because for every day the bloated beast is starved even a little, the better it is for our nation.

[RFEngineer]

This communist abomination is going to collapse. The Republican Party cannot be seen as the logical alternative, because they are not.

Both Republicans and Democrats are primarily for the “status quo” The status quo is not America.

When everything falls apart we need an alternative to counter the communists in the Democratic and Republican parties - that will form a third party - who will have a compelling message of collectivism to tell a starving nation.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Excellent!

[kidd]

conservatives doing what they do best: Destroying each other via self-defeating circular firing squad.

Tired rhetoric.

The TEA party is not a branch of the GOP.
The GOP is only "conservative" when it thinks it will get them votes.
The TEA party's goal is smaller government.
The GOP's goal is to get re-elected.

Lately, the TEA party has been ignored by the GOP establishment, as the GOP continues to approve expansions of government. Notice that when the GOP establishment criticizes the TEA party, there is no mention of a "circular firing squad" - that's because the GOP establishment is pointing the gun at itself. It is clear that the GOP establishment expects TEA party votes without actually doing anything to obtain a smaller government. That attitude HAS to change.

To the TEA Party, there is no bigger issue than the elimination of Obamacare. The TEA party is serving notice to the GOP: you have only one significant power left: approval of funding. We expect you to use this power. Otherwise the GOP-e might as well be Democrats.