Representative Steve King: “ban ObamaCare funding in all appropriations bills”

  While much seems to have been written in the last two days about the possibility that the House will vote to repeal ObamaCare, and will have the votes to override a presidential veto, the truth is that this is  not a legitimate possibility just yet because the Senate will not have to votes to also override a veto. In other words, this is nothing but a symbolic maneuver designed to help appease the Tea Party, but that does not mean there is nothing that the House can do to stop ObamaCare.

  The House holds the power of the purse–all spending bills must originate in the House and if the House decides not to fund something it doesn’t matter what laws might be on the books if there is no money to support the legislation. And it now appears as if the House might be on track to stop ObamaCare by defunding it.

  While the House still plans on holding their symbolic repeal vote, Representative Steve King has a plan that would actually stop ObamaCare in its tracks–ban the funding of ObamaCare in all appropriations bills. Steve King wants to force a showdown with the Obama regime, claiming that “somebody is going to blink.”

If House Republicans refuse to blink, we will succeed,” said King in videotaped interview. “ObamaCare will never become the effective law of the land and we’ll be able to leave a legacy of liberty for the future generations.”

 The House has the opportunity to ensure that ObamaCare never becomes the law of the land, for even if this is only a temporary solution, it will provide the Congress with a little more time to allow them to eventually repeal this disastrous bill altogether if the Republicans can gain both a majority in the Senate as well as the presidency in 2012. The name of the game here is delaying as much of ObamaCare for as long as possible until the chances of a repeal become a reality.

So, my proposal is this then: Each appropriations bill that comes through, we need to put language in it that prohibits any of the dollars that are appropriated in those funds–and I would add to that any funds heretofore appropriated–from being used to implement or enforce Obamacare,” said King.

  There is still one potential roadblock to this plan because this is more than just a showdown between House Republicans and the president, this is also a showdown between the House Republicans and a Senate which is still controlled by Democrats. Will the House and the Senate be able to reconcile spending bills and leave a ban on ObamaCare funding intact?  Steve King believes that House Republicans can win this battle also because there are too many Senate Democrats who fear their re-election prospects if they ignore the message that the American people sent them last November:

“I think that would be a wonderful thing to watch,” said King. “With all of the Senate Democrats that are up for election in 2012, they will have some difficult decisions to make and I think a lot of them already know how they will be if confronted with that eventuality

  The battle lines are being drawn even as I write this, but as of yet we still do not know how the new Congress is going to react once it is time to get down to business. I am hopeful that the House will not back down on this issue and will push as hard as possible for a defunding of ObamaCare, but as Representative King said, someone has to blink and we can only hope that it is not the House Republicans.