Showdown at the Obamacare Corral - How GOP Plans to Make Democrats Abandon Unpopular Law

Garth Kant * WND

An extremely bold but politically risky strategy to stop Obamacare is gaining surprising support in Congress, and many Republicans believe the last chance to derail the program has arrived.

The plan is to put Democrats on the defensive and make them rescue the increasingly unpopular and imploding law, a law Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, told WND is “falling apart at the seams.”

The strategy is risky because Democrats could turn the attempt into a replay of one of the GOP’s most devastating defeats in recent years: the government shutdown during the Clinton administration.

The bold move will require Republican lawmakers to exercise great political dexterity to avoid the same fate as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1995-96.

Perhaps most importantly, the GOP would seek to make a clear and compelling case to the American people as to why it would be the Democrats who would be shutting down the government, not the Republicans.

That is something Gingrich notably failed to do, even though it was President Clinton who refused to sign a spending bill passed by Congress.

Here is what Republicans are trying to do, how they are trying to do it and why they’re gearing up for the fight.

The grand strategy

A growing movement among Republicans would use the House’s constitutional power of the purse to cut off funding for the Affordable Healthcare Act before it goes into full effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

The man leading the anti-funding effort in the House, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., has asked the GOP leadership not to bring anything to the floor that has funding for Obamacare in it.

Meadows told WND, “The will of the majority of the American people is with us in wanting to move money we would have to spend on Obamacare to other critical areas that have seen substantial cutbacks.”

He is encouraged to see scores of his fellow GOP House members have already signed his letter asking “House leadership to defund Obamacare through the appropriations process” even though the letter has not yet been sent.

GOP lawmakers will need to convince the public this is a legitimate use of its powers by reminding voters the House of Representatives has the constitutional power and authority to withhold or allocate funding for all the operations of the federal government.

Read more at WND: 

http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/showdown-at-the-obamacare-corral/#6gt0vjrPr3Ff1RBj.99