The House votes to defund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood

  The United States House of Representatives is on a roll as of late; yesterday the House voted to cut off funding for the FCC’s attempt to implement Net Neutrality regulations which a court had already ruled they didn’t have the authority to regulate, and today the House voted to defund both Obamacare and Planned Parenthood.

  In a largely symbolic gesture the House had already voted to repeal Obamacare but as expected the Senate struck it down. But this is much more than a symbolic gesture–or at least it will be if the House has the courage to stay firm and united in their resolve to defund Obamacare–because perhaps the greatest power that the House holds is the power of the purse strings.

  All bills which raise revenues must start in the House, but we can rest assured that the Democrat controlled Senate will reinsert the funding of both Obamacare and Planned Parenthood when they debate this bill next week. Once this happens the amended bill will  have to be passed by the House. If the House refuses to pass the bill as amended by the Senate a showdown will occur that will most likely result in the shutdown of the federal government.

  The question is: Do the Republicans in the House have the courage of their convictions and will they have the political gravitas to hold their ground and shut down the federal government if it comes to that, or will they flinch and give in?

  The defunding of Obamacare and of Planned Parenthood today, coupled with the defunding of Net Neutrality, is great news but it will all go for not if the Republicans end up caving in on these issues. The Democrats are going to attack the Republicans on the grounds that they are uncaring, heartless bastards who are intentionally hurting the poor in an attempt to win votes with the Tea Party, but that is not what this fight is all about. We are engaged in a battle over the future of our country and we are trying to return the federal government to its role as a limited government as outlined in the constitution and if that means that the government needs to be shut down in order to achieve this goal than so be it. Let the chips fall where they may, if the Republicans lose the House because of this action I would find that more acceptable than if they simply roll over to the Democrats.

  I would rather they went down swinging for something that they believed in than to see them hang onto power by passing legislation for which they were supposedly opposed.