Republican Rep. Tom Graves announced an amendment to his budget resolution Friday that will delay Obamacare until 2015.
“A simple and reasonable way to ensure fairness for all is to provide every American the same one-year Obamacare delay that President Obama provided for businesses and others,” Graves said in a statement Friday.
Graves will speak on behalf of his idea at the House Republican conference meeting Saturday at noon at the U.S. Capitol, which will stress the goal of unifying the conference in the aftermath of inter-party Republican squabbling in the Senate between Sen. Ted Cruz and others.
President Obama already delayed Obamacare’s unpopular employer mandate until 2015, prompting calls for the law’s individual mandate to be dealt with the same way.
Graves has been in close communication with GOP leadership during his budget fight, but his “Fairness Amendment’s” chances appear slim against a Democratic-controlled Senate. If the conference meeting adopts his amendment, it will go the House Rules Committee.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed Graves’ Security, Stability, and Fairness Resolution, which will fund the federal government in fiscal year 2014 without funding Obamacare. However, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted Friday to strip out the resolution’s Obamacare-defunding language as the Senate moves forward with a vote on the bill just days before the current continuing resolution expires September 30.
So Graves responded in kind.
“Our amendment rejects the Washington-style special treatment for the privileged few and demands fairness for all. This approach was developed over several meetings with House Republicans, with a goal of keeping our conference unified,” Graves said.
Graves’ “Fairness Amendment” already has the support of 61 House Republicans.
Despite rhetoric from the Obama administration and the Washington media accusing Republicans of being unwilling to compromise, the new Republican-supported delay actually has bipartisan support.
Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin came out in support this week of a one-year individual mandate delay, saying, “There’s no way I could not vote for it. It’s very reasonable and sensible.”