Government Shutdown 2013: Conservatives Balk At GOP Leadership Plan To Force Senate Vote To Defund Obamacare

Conservative activists are balking at a likely proposal by the House Republican leadership to force the Senate on a vote to defund Obamacare within the next few days, a tactic that will determine whether a government shutdown will happen on Sept. 30 when current funding runs out.

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday said it has already produced a draft continuing resolution that continues the current rate of funding -- approximately $988 billion -- as a clean bill that doesn’t include defunding Obamacare.

However, GOP leadership is discussing a concurrent bill to defund the new health care law. According to The Hill, Republican leaders will present the plan to the rank and file Tuesday in a meeting. The proposal will call for a vote, to come as soon as Thursday, on what is described as a “clean” 2014 continuing resolution, a temporary appropriations bill, with a House concurrent resolution to defund Obamacare included. Forcing the Senate to make the difficult vote, sources told the paper, would serve to satisfy conservatives who want to see the national health care program repealed.

House Republicans have tried 40 times to repeal all or parts of the 2010 health care law, officially known as the Affordable Care Act.

“Are these news reports from The Onion? Or are they real?” said Chris Chocola, president of the conservative Club for Growth, in a statement. “When [House] members were at home over recess, did they hear their constituents ask for legislative tricks or principled leadership? Trying to fool Republicans into voting to fund Obamacare is even worse than offering a bill that deliberately funds it. I hope this proposal is nothing more than a bad joke and is quickly discarded. Republicans should simply do what they say they are for by passing a continuing resolution that doesn’t fund Obamacare.”

At the moment, conservatives in the Senate are also working to defund the health care law and cut spending. They are pushing for a vote on a 2014 continuing resolution that doesn’t include any type of funding for Obamacare.