House Republican leaders are expected to propose a new plan to the GOP rank-and-file on Saturday afternoon: make a new gesture of defiance toward President Obama’s health-care law, even if it increases the chances of a government shutdown on Monday night.
As the House GOP met for an internal conference Saturday in the Capitol basement, this was the plan leadership was expected to present: amend a Senate-passed bill to keep federal agencies open until November 15, and add a new portion that would delay all elements of the health-care law for a year.
According to a Republican inside the room, leaders are advocating an aggressive approach but trying to put in a few sweeteners to deal with the fallout of when the government shuts down. The package includes a one year delay of all elements of the health law, a permanent repeal of the medical sales device tax that funded portions of the law and a proviso that would assure pay for the military.
Additionally, the GOP has moved the date for federal funding back to Dec. 15.
The advantage of that plan--for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his team--is political. This idea would be even more aggressive than their last legislative attack on the law. That one would only have stripped some funding from the law’s implementation. This one would stop the law itself, at least temporarily.
The disadvantage is more practical: it would make a shutdown far more likely.
This plan would have to pass the Democrat-held Senate, and be signed by President Obama. And it probably won’t. So approving it would only heighten the chances that no spending bill will be passed before the next fiscal year begins on Tuesday, October 1.
Before the meeting began, it was clear that senior Republicans understood these possible consequences. Some rank-and-file Republicans said they now saw no way out of the shutdown.
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) said a shutdown was now “likely.”
“What’s going on that would make you think otherwise? Maybe I’ll hear something in there that will change that,” he said before going into the GOP meeting. “I doubt it.”
The House is expected to vote Saturday on some kind of funding resolution. But it’s still not clear what the resolution will say.
Even before the meeting began, some Republicans said they were very wary of any plan that would cause a significant shutdown.
“I don’t think we should skip a payday for our troops,” said Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), the chair of House Armed Services committee.
Asked if it was acceptable that military pay would be at risk in a government shutdown, McKeon responded “I’m only one person - I can only do what I can do.”
Before the meeting of the entire House Republican Conference, Boehner gathered his leadership team in his second floor Capitol office to go over the GOP’s final options. Aides said the Republicans were still considering all their alternatives and were searching for maneuvers that could walk an incredibly fine line – appeasing a bloc of 30 or more far-right conservatives who are demanding an aggressive posture against Obamacare, and also finding something that could be acceptable to Senate Democrats.
As the House GOP met for an internal conference Saturday in the Capitol basement, this was the plan leadership was expected to present: amend a Senate-passed bill to keep federal agencies open until November 15, and add a new portion that would delay all elements of the health-care law for a year.
According to a Republican inside the room, leaders are advocating an aggressive approach but trying to put in a few sweeteners to deal with the fallout of when the government shuts down. The package includes a one year delay of all elements of the health law, a permanent repeal of the medical sales device tax that funded portions of the law and a proviso that would assure pay for the military.
Additionally, the GOP has moved the date for federal funding back to Dec. 15.
The advantage of that plan--for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his team--is political. This idea would be even more aggressive than their last legislative attack on the law. That one would only have stripped some funding from the law’s implementation. This one would stop the law itself, at least temporarily.
The disadvantage is more practical: it would make a shutdown far more likely.
This plan would have to pass the Democrat-held Senate, and be signed by President Obama. And it probably won’t. So approving it would only heighten the chances that no spending bill will be passed before the next fiscal year begins on Tuesday, October 1.
Before the meeting began, it was clear that senior Republicans understood these possible consequences. Some rank-and-file Republicans said they now saw no way out of the shutdown.
Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) said a shutdown was now “likely.”
“What’s going on that would make you think otherwise? Maybe I’ll hear something in there that will change that,” he said before going into the GOP meeting. “I doubt it.”
The House is expected to vote Saturday on some kind of funding resolution. But it’s still not clear what the resolution will say.
Even before the meeting began, some Republicans said they were very wary of any plan that would cause a significant shutdown.
“I don’t think we should skip a payday for our troops,” said Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), the chair of House Armed Services committee.
Asked if it was acceptable that military pay would be at risk in a government shutdown, McKeon responded “I’m only one person - I can only do what I can do.”
Before the meeting of the entire House Republican Conference, Boehner gathered his leadership team in his second floor Capitol office to go over the GOP’s final options. Aides said the Republicans were still considering all their alternatives and were searching for maneuvers that could walk an incredibly fine line – appeasing a bloc of 30 or more far-right conservatives who are demanding an aggressive posture against Obamacare, and also finding something that could be acceptable to Senate Democrats.