PAUL RYAN IS WRONG ON
DEFUNDING
Re: Philip Klein’s
Paul Ryan Sees Limits to Strategy of Defunding
ObamaCare:
I, like many conservatives, respect deeply Congressman
Paul Ryan for his courage and leadership in developing the bold,
visionary document Roadmap
for America, which provides a realistic
pathway to bringing our nation’s fiscal house in order. However, in
one of the major upcoming policy battles, whether to fund
ObamaCare, Ryan has been less than bold and visionary.
The Wisconsin Congressman recently told The American
Spectator’s Philip Klein that the problem with defunding is
that “I don’t see him [President Obama]
signing our spending
bills, which are the bills you’d have to pass into law to defund
ObamaCare.” Unlike Ryan, I don’t see this as our problem, I see
this as the President’s problem.
If the President vetoes appropriations bills necessary to
run government because they lack ObamaCare’s funding, he will be
the one that shut it down
as Republicans would have given him all
other necessary appropriations to run federal operations. Further,
the President will be the one going against the will of the
public.
With an overwhelming majority of Americans, a clear
majority of independents, and even a quarter of Democrats
supporting repealing Obama Care, expect voters to be furious with a
President that shuts down essential government services, they as
taxpayers have already paid for, just because he wants to continue
his pet experiment that they reject.
Importantly, opposition to the law and the President’s
potential decision to shut down government will only rise as we
learn every single day of more premium hikes, more insurance
companies exiting the market, and more Americans being forced to
change their health plans.
Yet Congressman Ryan seems squeamish about stepping in the
ring of a funding fight. As demonstrated above, not only is this a
public relations battle we will win, but it is a policy battle we
must fight and one that if Republicans don’t, will severely harm
their political standing with the conservative base.
Recently I was at event with Republican congressional
candidate Robert Hurt
(VA-5) who, when asked about a funding fight
over ObamaCare, said “there are hills worth fighting on and this is
one of those hills.” Hurt is right, we simply cannot afford to let
the law be funded and implemented if we want to remain the most
exceptional country in the history of the earth and prevent our
transformation into another unexceptional European-style welfare
state where high unemployment is the norm and personal freedom is
secondary consideration.
Make no mistake, the conservative base will revolt against
a Republican Party that backs down in a funding fight over
ObamaCare. Demonstrative of such a revolt is a recent tweet from
conservative opinion-shaper and Red State editor Erick Erickson,
who tweeted that
“I have a feeling that if the GOP doesn’t repeal or defund
Obamacare in 2011, there will be no GOP in
2012.”
Even if Congressman Ryan has better arguments than
presented here, why would he show his hand to the President and let
him know that, if he refuses to sign appropriations bills without
ObamaCare’s funding, Republicans would back down, saying “that
means we go to a continuing resolution or something like
that”? Showing your hand is just not smart strategy, in war
and in politics.
— Alex Cortes
Mr. Cortes is chairman of DeFundIt.org, an organization advocating
the defunding of ObamaCare.
