Exclusive — Stockman Rallies GOP to Fight for Conservatism on Obamacare

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) is calling on his House GOP colleagues to stand with him and fight against Obamacare, and abandon continued and frequent establishment GOP “surrender” efforts.

“Unless you are out of the country on a CODEL or pulled a Jeff Flake (i.e., your idea of a vacation is marooning yourself on a deserted island in the Pacific), you know that none of us can watch the television news, listen to talk radio, or check the email inbox these days without witnessing the internecine battle Michael Barone calls ‘the clash of the surrender caucus versus the suicide caucus,'” Stockman wrote in a memo he plans to send to all House GOP members. “Less than two weeks into our five week recess, it seems I can’t go anywhere without being asked whether I support leveraging the CR to defund ObamaCare.  If your constituents are anything like mine, you too are besieged by folks demanding to know where you stand.  At least three Conference Members who oppose the strategy were already confronted at town hall meetings and can now watch clips of themselves on YouTube. “

Stockman, a member of the House from 1995 to 1997 before losing re-election in a runoff, now a technically new freshman member this year, argued that the reason the GOP has a majority in the House is because the American people want them to repeal Obamacare. “Americans gave Republicans control of the House in 1994 (including my victory over 42-year incumbent Jack Brooks) because Bill Clinton overreached on HillaryCare,” Stockman wrote. “Americans gave Republicans control of the House in 2010 because they wanted us to pull the plug on ObamaCare.  Between January 2011 and June 2012, Republicans didn’t utilize a must-pass vehicle to defund ObamaCare because they were assured the Supreme Court would strike it down. Then Republicans were told to wait until after November because we would gain Senate seats and might win the White House.”

Stockman argued that the GOP has used rhetoric against Obamacare for a long time but has not actually stepped up to fight it. “If we believe ObamaCare is bankrupting our country, killing our constituents’ jobs, and destroying our health care system, then it is good policy and good politics for us to act like it,” Stockman wrote. “That’s why I filed H.Res. 333 the afternoon we adjourned for the August recess.”

H. Res. 333 is a House Resolution through which members can declare their support for the strategy to defund Obamacare from Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA), in the upcoming Continuing Resolution (CR) that funds government. “If you wish to join Senators Lee, Cruz, Chiesa, Crapo, Enzi, Fischer, Grassley, Inhofe, Paul, Risch, Rubio, Thune, and Vitter, you can make your support of the defund ObamaCare strategy known to your constituents, the Speaker, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama by co-sponsoring H.Res. 333,” Stockman wrote to his colleagues.

Stockman then argued that if a government shutdown were to occur, the GOP would not and should not take the blame. “As you know, Obama and Reid have threatened to shut down the government if we don’t fund ObamaCare,” Stockman wrote. “I’m sure you’ve heard the argument that a shutdown showdown will supposedly be an electoral disaster for us because everybody knows the partial, temporary, shutdown for 28 days in 1995 caused Republicans to be punished at the polls.  But that revisionist history is a red herring.”

Stockman speaks from experience; he is one of the few Republicans who lost re-election in 1996 in a mostly-Democrat-controlled district (his new district in 2013 is GOP heavy). “I know whereof I speak because I was a Member of the 104th Congress and among the handful of incumbent Republicans who lost in 1996,” he wrote. “Our staring contests with Clinton were not the reason why Republicans didn’t hold on to our most Democrat House districts in an election cycle in which our Presidential nominee had no coattails.  On the contrary: had we not had the courage of our convictions during that face-off with Clinton, we would not have: (1) passed landmark legislation to reform welfare; (2) replaced deficits with budget surpluses; (3) kept our House and Senate majorities; and, (4) heard Clinton declare, ‘The era of big government is over.'”

Stockman also argues that many voters do not use the mainstream media anymore as a source for information. “Even setting that aside, the political landscape in 2013 bears little, if any, resemblance to 1995,” Stockman said. “Barack Obama is no Bill Clinton and the $17 trillion debt was only $4 trillion. Voters now get their information from syndicated talk radio, the Internet, satellite TV, and/or the Fox News Channel instead of daily newspapers, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and NPR.  The polls show a growing majority of Americans opposes ObamaCare.”