GOP split on 'Obamacare' delays budget vote

Susan Davis | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — A divide within the Republican Party over whether to use upcoming budget votes to defund and delay President Obama's health care law forced House Republicans to push off until next week a vote on a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government running through mid-December.

"I think it's going to be difficult if we can't come to a consensus in the Republican Conference," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who is part of the House GOP leadership team that counts votes to pass legislation. "I don't think anything is for sure right now. We're going to continue to dispose, delay, defund anyway we can. The only debate is what's a productive way to do it, and what's not."

House GOP leaders propose a spending bill to fund the federal government through Dec. 15 at the current spending levels — $986 billion a year — to buy Congress more time to find a longer-term agreement. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and without a stopgap measure, the federal government would shut down. Adding pressure is the timeline: There are just five legislative days to resolve the issue because the House is scheduled to be in recess the week of Sept. 23.

Conservatives want to use the spending bill to defund the president's health care law, a popular effort among the GOP base but one that is certain to be blocked by a Democratic-controlled Senate or face a presidential veto.

"Our position, obviously, is that we will not accept anything that delays or defunds 'Obamacare,'" White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday. "Threatening a government shutdown over an ideological position is not something most Americans would believe is the right thing to do."

In an effort to find common ground, House GOP leaders put forth a proposal to pass the budget bill but also allow the House another vote to defund the health care law while using a parliamentary tactic to force the Senate to take an up-or-down vote to do the same. "It frankly moves the fight where it needs to be: in the United States Senate," said Cole, who supports the tactic.

The move is symbolic: it would result in a swift Democratic defeat of the defund measure in the Senate and a quick enactment of the overall stopgap spending bill that does nothing to rein in the health care law.

It was not enough to appease conservatives Wednesday.

"I'm not out there strongly opposing it as much as I am saying I can't look at that as a viable option to accomplish what we're trying to vote for," said freshman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. Meadows has rallied 80 Republicans to sign a letter saying they cannot vote for a spending bill that doesn't defund the law. "I don't plant to vote for it if it comes up."

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats will not support the stopgap measure if it includes language to defund the health care law, hoisting the burden on to House Republicans to find the votes to pass it. With 233 seats under their control, Republicans would need all but two dozen of their members to vote for the bill to pass it on their own.

"Their my-way-or-the-highway strategy continues to fail because they are deeply divided and continue to balk at the prospect of working across the aisle to achieve results," Hoyer said.

Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said this is a fight conservatives are ready to have, despite the political stakes for the GOP being seen as forcing a fight over shutting down the government.

"I think that's a risk you have to take," he said, "Any path forward, there's a political downside to it. We didn't come here to get re-elected and have safe political careers. We came here to get things done."

Kingston chairs the appropriations subcommittee with oversight over the Department of Health and Human Services, but he said he would vote against the GOP leadership proposal if it comes to the House floor. "I think that what our base wants is us to go ahead and have the fight over 'Obamacare,' right here, right now," he said.