Opinion

The next chapter in the fight to defund Obamacare

Alex Cortes Contributor
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On Friday the Republican House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution for the current fiscal year that contained several amendments withholding all discretionary funding for Obamacare. Although this is an important step in overturning the Democrats’ government takeover of health care, more could have and should have been done.

Congressman Steve King, a conservative warrior, offered an amendment to fully defund Obamacare, including the law’s mandatory spending that constitutes the majority of its funding. Under the rule for which the spending bill was considered, the Rules Committee deemed the amendment out of order “for legislating on an appropriations bill.”

Rep. King asked for a waiver and it understandably was denied. The brand new Republican Congress should be wary of making special exceptions for friends and tarnishing their image with the American people.

However, the leadership could have shielded King’s language from a point of order by simply including it within the text of the continuing resolution. If they’re serious about overturning the law, why wouldn’t they have done so?

Some have defended their position by conjecturing that it will be hard enough to get the Democratic Senate and President Obama to accept the spending levels the Republican House set, let alone a full defunding of their signature achievement. Given that Obama has already issued a veto threat to the House’s budget, this is certainly true, but it’s also precisely why Republicans should wage a full-on spending war.

No matter the case, big-government Democrats are going to object to any significant spending cuts, whether it’s to Obamacare or another program. Therefore, if Republicans actually seek the enactment of consequential cuts over the next two years of divided government, the only way they are going to secure them is by holding their ground across-the-board and forcing the opposition to eventually give in.

It’s what they were elected to do and it’s what is fiscally necessary to do with a $14 trillion debt.

With that said, our job now is to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire to make sure they protect the current defunding amendments in the continuing resolution and don’t toss them aside in budget negotiations.

Then, we must turn our attention to the fiscal year 2012 budget to be considered this calendar year and demand that Congressman King’s legislative language be inserted into its text.

There is no rest for the weary and those who seek to overturn Obamacare.

Alex Cortes is the Chairman of Restore the Dream Foundation, whose initiative DeFundIt.org advocates for the de-funding of Obamacare.