The Republicans again fail to defeat Obamacare
theGRIO REPORT - This was the last chance for Republicans to truly block the health care law, and they will not succeed...
Before Congress left for its summer recess, a bloc of Senate Republicans, led by Tea Party senators Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) started a petition calling for defunding the federal government unless Congress repealed Obamacare.
A dozen senators immediately signed the document, and it was expected more would after being confronted by conservative activists in their home states.
It didn’t happen. Only 13 of the 46 Republicans in the Senate have joined this latest attempt to repeal the president’s health care law.
The lack of signatures is a very important development. This was the last chance for Republicans to truly block the health care law, and they will not succeed. It means the expanded Medicaid programs and subsidies for purchasing insurance that are at the heart of the law will begin on Oct. 1, as has been long scheduled.
The failure of Lee and the other Tea Party senators to get more conservatives behind this effort illustrates that there are limits to the power of the Tea Party within the broader GOP. Top party leaders such as Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) were wary that the Republicans, not Obama, would be blamed if the government were shut down over Obamacare. Other Republicans argued it was foolish for a party in control of only the House of Representatives to demand that the party controlling the Senate and the White House agree to repeal one of its signature achievements.
To be sure, Republicans are likely to try to delay or stop other parts of the health care law. In part, this reflects strong conservative opposition to Obamacare. But it also shows the limited agenda of Republicans. They have held dozens of voters to repeal the health care law because it is one of the few things Republicans can agree on, as they increasingly have internal tension on issues like gay marriage, abortion and national security policy.
President Obama would never have signed into law a budget agreement that included defunding Obamacare anyway. But a protracted negotiation, in which most Republicans had agreed to end funding for the health care law, likely would have forced the president to agree to major cuts in other programs he supports. Instead, he’s won this latest round on Obamacare largely without lifting a finger.
