Posted on 09/26/2013 12:55:59 AM PDT by markomalley
Republicans pulling on the budget thread can't neatly unravel President Barack Obama's health care law.
A partial government shutdown next week would leave the major parts of the law in place and rolling along, according to former Democratic and Republican budget officials, as well as the Obama administration itself. Health care markets for the uninsured would open as scheduled on Tuesday.
Deleting the money to implement the law, the GOP's dream scenario, would indeed cripple Obamacare. But that's much less likely to happen than a government shutdown. Obama wouldn't allow the ruin of his hard-fought namesake legislation.
Part of the reason a shutdown wouldn't stop the health care law is that government doesn't grind to a halt. National defense, law enforcement, air traffic control and other activities involving the safety of human life and the protection of property continue.
Ditto for big entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, whose "mandatory" funding does not have to be renewed annually by Congress. The Affordable Care Act is the newest addition to that club of budget heavyweights.
The employees who administer such programs may also be considered essential. During the Clinton-era shutdowns, Social Security brought back nearly 50,000 employees to handle claims work after initially giving them furloughs.
"Many of the core parts of the health care law are funded through mandatory appropriations and wouldn't be affected," Gary Cohen, the Health and Human Services Department official overseeing the health care rollout, told reporters this week.
Translation: Obamacare's good to go.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Why should I believe a journalist named Ricardo?
I despise the alphabet news.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are funded by their so-called trust funds; that is an entirely different situation from Obamacare.
As a guest on Mark Levin's show explained a few nights ago, the rats wrote checks to spend on Obamacare, but there has to be money in the bank, i.e. an appropriation by congress.
What if he breaks the rules and continues? It wouldn't be the first time.
It takes two thirds of the Senate to remove him. Would the Pentagon step in?
He’s basically correct. During a shutdown the President gets to decide what are and are not critical governmental functions. But that doesn’t really matter. If the Continuing Resoultion(s) eventually adopted strips funding for mcconnellcare, then that’s all she wrote.
We don’t have budgets anymore, we have Continuing Resolutions.
>> RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Olé!
But I digress... what creds does RAZ have on these matters?
And if it’s no big deal, why are McConnell, McCain, et al romping the media scene hysterically?
...but they won’t pull the thread. This is a party of cowards.
I think what they mean is that parts of ACA are “off budget”
The rats wouldn’t be fighting if Obamacare could not be defunded.
So what is the big deal about a government shut-down? Why should anybody fear it in any way whatsoever?
If this is true, there should be absolutely NO hesitation to shut down the government.
However, a bill should be created that strips the POTUS of any discretion in deciding which programs are “essential”.
And Obama should be impeached for issuing waivers against the expressed terms of the law and for deliberately refusing to enforce some provisions of the law, against his 2nd Article responsibility to see to it that the laws are FAITHFULLY executed. He also should be impeached for election fraud, document fraud, perjury, and forgery, as well as for the abdication of his Constitutional duty by going to bed during the Benghazi crisis and for lawless EO’s and for the treason of arming America’s expressed enemy in Syria.
First, the rats don't have to fight, merely protect or deflect. The GOP has to be the aggressor.
Second, all of the fighting is between republicans.
Every Republican must be asked whether they support Ted Cruz.
If “No”, then vote against them, even if that means withholding your vote.
It is worse to support statist leftism when it has a “Republican” label.
Oh, so by you, the rats aren’t defending Obamacare.
Semantics!
I spoke to a secretary at Coburn’s office and her whole argument is that Obamacare will be funded even if the government shuts down so resistance is totally futile.
I say if this is the case then it is what Cantor wanted, on steroids. It means that we can shut down the government and all the critical stuff will keep going so there will be no real consequence of the shutdown except to stop the pork which we should all be wanting anyway. And Obamacare would still go into effect - TOTALLY BECAUSE OBAMA SAYS IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERYTHING ELSE.
IOW, the whole stinkin’ rotting Obamacare train wrech would fall squarely on NOBODY’S SHOULDERS EXCEPT OBAMA’S, since it would be his executive decision that shafting the people and schmoozing the big lobbyists and Congress was more important than anything else.
There is absolutely NO REASON for ANY R to fear a government shut-down. NONE. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
They have no excuse for being complicit in this mess. They have the opportunity to lay it squarely on Obama, for making it impossible for Congress to defund.
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