Free Republic

There's a movement among Capitol Hill Republicans to defund Obamacare. With the president's hugely expensive national health care scheme set to take effect Jan. 1, many of the law's opponents view this fall's battles over spending and the debt as the last chance to stop it, specifically by cutting off funds for its implementation. But Republicans will not stop Obamacare. They won't defund it. Their last chance to put an end to it was the 2012 election. They lost, and the chance is gone. On Thursday, Republican Sen. Mike Lee made public a letter pledging to "not support any continuing...

Polling suggests Republicans drawing a line in the sand over Obamacare funding in the continuing resolution would be unpopular with the American public. Instead of trying to find a way to convince the American public this is the right thing to do, the Republican consultant class wants to run rapidly away from the idea. They have convinced Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner that the GOP must not allow the Democrats to shut down the government by the GOP refusing to fund Obamacare. It is important to note that the same Republican consultants who oppose a strategy...

The lines of argument are hardening as the party's leading presidential candidates, who delivered speeches here on Saturday, continued to dig in for what Republicans believe could be a long and bitter fight for the nomination that extends into the spring as new rules allow contenders to pick up delegates even in states where they lose.