Say this for the GOP: they don't stop. You talk about derangement syndrome. They are at it again-though when are they never not at it?
"Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) received an earful Monday at a town hall after he said that he will not be backing efforts to defund Obamacare and risk a government shutdown."
"Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-NC) received an earful Monday at a town hall after he said that he will not be backing efforts to defund Obamacare and risk a government shutdown."
"The exchange was captured and posted by the tea party website ConstitutionalWar.org. A man off camera can be heard asking Pittenger about the defunding effort spearheaded by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
"Do you want the thoughtful answer?" Pittenger asked.
"I want yes or no," the man said.
Pittenger then said "no," a clip that the tea party website re-played in slow-motion.
The lawmaker then had a back-and-forth with the man and a woman, who was also off camera.
"Do you think Harry Reid is going to pass that in the Senate?" Pittenger asked.
"It doesn't matter," the man fired back.
"We need to show the American people we stand for conservative values," the woman shouted, drawing a smattering of applause.
"Lee's push to defund Obamacare has drawn support from the likes of Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rand Paul (R-KY), but it's also created a schism on the right. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Bob Corker (R-TN) have pushed back against the effort, while influential conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer called the defunding proposal "nuts."
You like that-No! We don't want the thoughtful answer and we don't care if Harry Reid won't bring up the defund Obamacare bill in the Senate. Still, the divisions being sewn are good news. As Greg Sargent points out, Marco Rubio-unlike many Republican Senators who are showing some good sense on the absurdity of the Republican Kamikaze crusade to defund Obamacare at all costs-has been on full repeal Obamcare full tilt. The reason seems to be that since he supports the Senate immigration bill, he has no leash left. You're only allowed to support one good bill.
"Along these lines, a new Rubio quote is generating some chatter this morning, and it’s worth a look, because it says a lot about why we’re heading into another series of crises this fall. Asked to respond to Republicans who say the push to defund Obamacare is misguided, Rubio said:
“All I’m saying is that you cannot say you are against Obamacare if you are willing to vote for a law that funds it. If you’re willing to fund this thing, you can’t possibly say you’re against it.”
"This comes after Rubio noted the other day that if the government ultimately gets shut down over the GOP drive to defund Obamacare, it will be the fault of the President for insisting that his law get funded."
Obama is going to use Congress' 'recess'-what exactly are they taking a break from?
-to speak to the American people about his agenda for economic growth, immigration, and healing the housing market. In his housing speech he also touched on Obamacare-which mercifully will start to come online on October 1-mercifully as it's the only way to stop people from believing all the GOP urban legends about it:
President Obama's attention Tuesday was on pitching his housing policies, but he briefly veered off into building support his health care law, an underlying piece of his economic agenda this summer.
"I actually believe in the free market and just like the health care law that we put in place -- Obamacare," he said to cheers in Phoenix, straying from his prepared remarks, which mentioned health care but as another issue on which critics have called him a "socialist," but on which he actually supports the involvement of the private sector.
"If you don't have health insurance or you're buying it at exorbitant rates on the individual market, starting on October 1st, you can join a marketplace and be part of a pool that gives you much lower premiums, saves you a lot of money," Obama said.
"Then, with tweaks, he moved back to his prepared speech: "But, in the same way that what we did with health care was to set up clear rules for insurance companies to protect consumers, make it more affordable but still built on the private marketplace, I believe that our housing system should operate where there's a limited government role and private lending should be the backbone of the housing market."
You have to appreciate the seeds of the Obamacare obsession. We saw the hit Rep. Pittenger took at his town hall meeting by saying he wouldn't use the debt ceiling to defund Obamacare. He had to try to redeem himself by promising Hey! I hate Obamacare too! I promise!
P.S. I'm happy to see that Jan Brewer was actually able to have a civil conversation with the President this time in Arizona-who can forget last time when she wagged her finger in his face like she though she was addressing a sixth grader at the elementary school rather than the President of the United States?
Of course, she is a fan of Obamacare-she got the Medicare expansion done by following through on her threat to veto everything from the GOP state Congress until they got it done.
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