Despite the fact that at least 127 House Republicans have signed a letter that calls upon Speaker John Boehner and House GOP leadership to cease any further funding of President Obama’s health care law, Speaker Boehner seems poised to continue appropriating funds for ObamaCare.
At the speaker’s press conference on Tuesday, Boehner was asked by CNS News whether a new continuing resolution (CR) will permit funding for ObamaCare. The speaker responded, “Our goal would be to make sure government is funded and any political talk of a government shutdown is put to rest.”
Speaker Boehner sounded rather defensive in his response, observing that the House has voted 33 times “to defund, to repeal, and change ObamaCare.”
The day before, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy also responded to CNS News defensively. “We’re not at a CR yet, but I don’t see this government ever being shut down,” McCarthy said. “I think you’ll find that we’ll get this job done. We have displayed many times our desire to repeal and will continue to do so. I think when we do it you always criticize us on our votes of how many times we try to repeal it in the process.”
The letter to the House GOP leadership, signed by Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann (MN), Steve King (IA), Allen West (FL), and other House Republicans, states, in part:
Since much of the implementation of ObamaCare is a function of the discretionary appropriations process, and since most of the citizens we represent believe that ObamaCare should never go into effect, we urge you not to bring to the House floor in the 112th Congress any legislation that provides or allows funds to implement ObamaCare…
Yes, conservatives do acknowledge that House Republican leadership has voted to repeal ObamaCare 33 times. However, many conservative leaders, led by ever-faithful Rep. Michele Bachmann, are reminding leadership that it’s about time to put “the power over the purse,” as James Madison noted, into effect. To say that it is more important to fund the government than to put a halt to a high-impact law denounced by most Americans easily appears politically self-serving. Perhaps even more so, when the reason Congress needs to continue the charade of multiple CRs is because Senate Democrats refuse to offer a budget.
Enough of votes that are meaningful only for the sake of what they intend. Republican leadership needs to use the appropriations power of Congress to finally work the will of the American people.