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The Spectacle Blog
I have a piece up on the main site stemming from my conversation with Rep. Paul Ryan about how entitlement reform is playing out in this year’s elections. During our talk, I also asked him about the possibility of Republicans starving ObamaCare by defunding its implementation should they win control of Congress (which would make Ryan chairman of the Budget Committee). Though he supports repealing ObamaCare, he emphasized that there were limits to the defunding strategy.
Ryan told me:
“Obviously, I’m in favor of anything we can do to stop it, to halt it, but the problem we have is, he has to sign those bills. I get this question every single day, ‘If you take back Congress, you have the power of the purse, just defund the thing.’ Well, yeah, technically speaking, we can put riders in appropriations bills that say, ‘No such funds can go to HHS to do x, y, or z in implementing ObamaCare.’ He’s gotta sign those things. And he doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who would sign those things. And so that means we go to a continuing resolution or something like that. So I see a lot of stalemate — not over just whether we defund ObamaCare and cap and trade and FinReg or whatever — because he’s not going to agree to our spending levels anyway. We’re going to cut spending way below where he would go. So I don’t see him signing our spending bills, which are the bills you’d have to pass into law to defund ObamaCare.”
For more on the various arguments Republicans are having over the defunding strategy, check out my article from our July/August issue.
View all comments (24) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Philip Klein
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Siegfried X| 10.15.10 @ 12:27PM
Ryan is totally right. Presidents almost always win government shutdowns.
Also if Democrats keep the Senate, then Obama won't even need to veto. The Senate could insist on funding for ObamaCare during negotiations.
This is why there is no hope of getting huge cuts in spending during the next Congress.
Jacobite| 10.16.10 @ 5:56PM
You can take the Intolerable Acts and the Stamp Tax and multiply by 10 and you won't touch Obamacare for sheer tyranny. In his wildest dreams, George III never thought of controlling every doctor's every treatment decision. Since O-care is obviously unConstitutional, and since you all think we have to win a political election to overturn it, have you reached the obvious conclusion yet? The Constitution isn't working, amigo.
Siegfried X| 10.15.10 @ 12:35PM
The tail doesn't wag the dog. The Boehner House will be better than Pelosi's, but we shouldn't expect miracles.
Dixie Pixie| 10.15.10 @ 1:11PM
The problem with defunding as a political strategy is it leaves the original law in place to be implemented when the Democrats regain the upper-hand.
Given the Republican Party leadership has a history of folding at the first blast of “Sob Story” agitprop, the Republican Party can not be trusted to keep a bad law defunded.
The only way to permanently kill ObamaCare is to repeal the legislation. Other wise ObamaCare will arise like a brain eating Zombie during each funding cycle.
JASmius | 10.15.10 @ 2:26PM
And there's no way to repeal it while Obama is still president. Just as defunding it will be harder than we want to think, which is something else you don't want to hear. Guess that makes Paul Ryan a RINO "Ruling Class" sellout too, huh?
I was curious how many comments it would take before a tighty-righty jumped in. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.
Dixie Pixie| 10.15.10 @ 4:37PM
JASmius---- Of course ObamaCare can be repealed.
All it would take is a solid front of Republicans plus a handful of Democrats to override a Obama veto.
The point I was trying to make is under the “Defund Strategy”, the Republicans would have to re-fight the ObamaCare battles year after year, funding cycle after funding cycle until they lose. While the Democrats only has to defend what they have already won. Obviously, the best strategy is to simply repeal ObamaCare.
PS.... Paul Ryan is not a RINO.
He has been a lonely voice for fiscal sanity.
Martin| 10.19.10 @ 1:31PM
Dixie,
to override the Presidential Veto you need 2/3 of each chamber! So not just the GOP and "a handful of democrats." I think probably 16 Democrats from the Senate after Jan 2011. Not going to happen!
Jacobite| 10.16.10 @ 6:05PM
Defund Obamacare -- good idea. But you have to fight the Left everywhere they are. Student loans are mainly stipends for slackers to avoid work for 4-5-6 years, while being indoctrinated in anti-Americanism. Cut them off, or at least any loans to study the social 'sciences'. Tax laws shielding charitable trusts are doing far more harm by subsidizing Left-wing ventures than any real charity can achieve. Labor unions are criminal conspiracies (extortion) -- eliminate their exemptions from the criminal law. You've got to seek out Leftists wherever they are and work to cripple, then destroy, them. If you pay attention, they're already doing the same to Americans whenever they get a chance.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.15.10 @ 1:15PM
Philip,
Since you have a relationship with Mr. Ryan, please tell him for me: DON'T SIGN THE DAMNED APPROPRIATIONS...DON'T SIGN THE CHECKS!
When the govocrats don't get paid for a month, they will be all over Obama!!!!!!!
GTCrew| 10.15.10 @ 4:00PM
I'm pretty sure Ken (Old Texican) is right.
There is no reason not to shut down the Federal Government. For all the fear and wailing and gnashing of teeth, it has happened before and honestly, could you tell a difference?
Send the bill forward. If Obama vetoes, let him explain why the SS checks aren't going out.
Siegfried X| 10.15.10 @ 4:47PM
(1) Congress doesn't sign any "checks"
(2) Social security is perpetual and doesn't need to be approved every year
Spicy Joker| 10.15.10 @ 2:23PM
The obvious answer is to defeat Obama in 2012. That means opposing losers like Mitt Romney (a slick, two-faced RINO) and Mike Huckster (a fat, nasty troll who is trying to undermine Nikki Haley in South Carolina).
Pete| 10.15.10 @ 3:13PM
I'd still put it in front of him and make a show of him not signing in the face of a "mandate" from the people in the Nov elections. It would be a highly publicized way to further expose his lies about "unification" and "bi-partisanship."
Franklin| 10.15.10 @ 4:04PM
Best argument yet!! Make little o say 'no' and then shove the 'party of no' in his face!
Oldefarte| 10.15.10 @ 4:44PM
WELFARECARE hopefully will be terminated either by a SCOTUS decision [the recent legal ruling concerning Florida's case is encouraging and I think Virginia's case maybe ruled upon next week] or defunding next year by the new group of elected [November] Republicans. This EXCREMENT is apparently swirling around the toilet bowl, and it's only a matter of time before it finally disappears from sight!!!!!!!!
serfer62| 10.15.10 @ 5:48PM
All the congress has to do is co9ntinue to put up proposals such as tax cuts, OHbamaCare reductions, limiting govorment and let The Won veto them. Every veto will reduce the Kommiecrats remaining in office and undersut any hope Ohbama has for reelection.
To succeed it isn't necessary to win but only let the Kommiecrats loss any hope of a future party or representation....
Limbaugh has it wrong
Yosemeti Sam| 10.16.10 @ 2:48AM
Yo, Ryan - so the heavy lifting is dependent on the 20 odd state attorney generals challenging BHOcare in the courts?
What's the point to putting the GOP back in power then if their hands are gonna be tied by such defeatist optimism?
JimmyT| 10.16.10 @ 1:48PM
I believe it depends on how the elections turn out as to how much power the repubs will have in the upcoming congress. IF, and it is a big IF, we take out some of the entrenched dems (Barney, Russ, Boxer) the other dems might be scared enough about 2012 they may just go along. For this strategy to work, they have to act fast. I mean within the first week, if they takeover.
aware| 10.16.10 @ 6:59PM
GOP bravely marches up the hill then bravely skulks back down again.
Even if the commie Dems are unable to expand government to new and greater horizons, at least they still have the Republicans, as usual, acting like good little backstops by at least keeping the previous gains consolidated, while they regroup.
It is hard to believe from seeing the hopefuls(Repubs) that any of them even have a clue of the magnitude of what is rapidly approaching. Its like we're England in the 30s and everybody wants to be Neville Chamberlain, so they can go "negotiate" from a superior moral position with a monster.
The monster is not Obama, it is a rotten governmental/economic system that is about to oversee the passing of a once premier 1st rank nation into the 2nd or 3rd rank, with the attending calamities such events always mean to the average "citizen".
JimRuss| 10.16.10 @ 11:02PM
The solution is to break up the budget bill into small pieces. Every department will have its own spending bill. They will debate to justify its budget. That way we can isolate HHS (i.e. Obamacare) and avoid a general government shutdown, which has its political risks.
Let Congress and Obama argue over a spending bill specific to Obamacare. That's a debate Republicans can win. And if they cannot agree on the HHS spending bill, too bad. Isolate and destroy, baby.
Bob| 10.17.10 @ 12:29PM
This is another good idea too. I hope some Republicans in power are reading this thread.
Bob| 10.17.10 @ 12:28PM
All they have to do is adopt a rule at the beginning of the session that outlaws the use of continuing resolutions. This way, Obama will have to be serious about negotiations. He can't just run out the clock hoping Republicans cave by continuing the budget from last year.
Another alternative would be to adopt a rule allowing continuing resolutions, but anytime you use one it can only be for 50% of last year's budget.
Just be creative people.
Gerald| 10.19.10 @ 4:41PM
This is not how the budget resolution process works. Paul Ryan is wrong and a shutdown would only occur if the Republicans allow this to come down to an all-or-nothing continuing budget resolution. This comes from an excellent and very knowledgeable inside source who informed me that the government is funded through 13 appropriations bills, not one omnibus funding bill. Sorry Paul, but your dead wrong on this one. ObamaCare can and will be defunded. It was pledged to us. Do it.