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GOP’s Response if Obama Delays the ACA Individual Mandate

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Photo Credit: APWhat will the GOP leadership do if Obama calls for a one year delay in the ACA individual mandate?

Suppose the software programming wizards at CGI Federal are not able to fundamentally transform their Frankenstein-like monster into an integrated seamless system where multiple independently developed software applications are stitched together like sundry body parts gathered from several crony capitalism graveyards.

What happens, then, if the ACA website continues to channel Dr. Frankenstein’s monster? “My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.”

First, isn’t it likely that Democrat senators up for re-election in 2014 will be joined by outspoken Democrat members of the House in an effort to pressure President Obama into postponing the individual mandate portion of ACA?

Democrats would like nothing more than to take Obamacare off the table as a red hot campaign issue in the run-up to the November 2014 elections. Its potential toxicity is an existential threat to their political careers.

If the monster continues struggling to sit-up, stand-up and walk deep into December, the cumulative pressure on the President from members of his own party could find outspoken Democrats angrily parroting Senators Cruz and Lee’s call for a postponement in the individual mandate — until after the November ’14 elections.
But they probably won’t be called names like “terrorists” by Harry Reid.

Meanwhile, factor this into the possible equation: The next episode in the continuing saga of the “Debt Ceiling Deadline Crisis” is set to run January 15, 2014 — in about two months.

Imagine that the ACA website by mid-December is still rigidly stumbling forward as the villagers continue to scream. Frankenstein’s monster said, “I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.” At some point, it’ll be prudent for Obamacare’s creator to temporarily abandon his namesake.

When that happens, watch for the G.O.P. leadership to herald an opportunity for magnanimous bipartisan cooperation as they graciously acquiescent to a one-year postponement for Secretary Sebelius’ geek squads to perform major surgery on the ACA in exchange for some nominal, inconsequential, transitory Democrat concession attached to the debt ceiling…solution.

Why this possible outcome? Because, should all this evolve, do we really expect Boehner and McConnell to stand firm and say, “No deal. This is your monster, Mister President. Plus, it’s the ‘law of the land.’ So let him walk on, and let all the villagers see where he goes.”

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First published at American Thinker.

Since 2007, Lee Cary has written hundreds of articles and blogs for several conservative websites, including the American Thinker and Breitbart’s Big Journalism & Big Government (as Archy Cary), been quoted on national television (Sean Hannity) and on nationally syndicated radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin). His articles are cited in Jerome Corsi’s The Obama Nation and in Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny. Cary now writes for the Texas-based site teaparty911.com.

Cuccinelli Only the Latest Conservative Candidate Targeted by G.O.P.

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The Republican establishment continues to undercut the campaigns of conservative candidates. Ken Cuccinelli was just the latest.

In early 2013, a Texas-based Tea Party website posted a series of articles that documented how the G.O.P. establishment, at the county, state and national levels, had worked against six candidates supported by Tea Party organizations — five running for House seats, and one G.O.P. nominee for a U.S. Senate seat.

A seventh case detailed how the Chair of the Illinois State Republican Central Committee was chosen. It illustrates the “Illinois Combine” – the bipartisan collaborative formula going national these days.

Read more from this story HERE.

Anti-Obamacare Candidate Bridges Tea Party and Establishment Divide

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Photo Credit: NEWSCOMBen Sasse is doing what few Republicans have been able to accomplish: He’s uniting the GOP establishment with anti-establishment conservatives in his bid to become the next U.S. senator from Nebraska.

The broad coalition Sasse is building is something the Nebraskan is proud of — and it’s an element of his campaign he’s been actively pursuing. “We’re building a broad conservative coalition of Nebraskans who want to fix Washington,” says Sasse in an email.

“We’re grateful that all types of folks across Nebraska are responding to our conservative, solutions-oriented message. This week, for instance, we’ve sought the support of gun owners, of Christian service organizations, and of the Chamber of Commerce. We want everybody; we want to grow the conservative movement.”

The key appears to be Sasse’s anti-Obamacare message, which the former Bush official is able to speak about fluidly and persuasively. It’s resonating especially well now that the open-enrollment period for the massive health care overhaul has been so disastrous.

“Ben Sasse is the rare candidate who can clearly and forcefully prosecute the case against Obamacare, not only because it’s an unconstitutional assault on our liberty, but also because he’s read every word of it,” Club for Growth president Chris Chocola said this week in a statement endorsing the candidate.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Can Win by Waiting: Make Democrats Clean Up their Own Mess

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Photo Credit: National Review Democrats are pleading for help, in the face of the implosion of Obamacare. House Republicans confronted with these pleas should listen to those who say: “Don’t do something; just stand there.”

It was Obama and the Democratic Senate who caused the disaster now unfolding. Specifically, Democratic red- or swing-state senators such as Mary Landrieu (La.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Mark Pryor (Ark.), and even Al Franken (Minn.) provided key votes to adopt the monstrosity without a single ballot to spare. Let them face the music; let them reap the consequences. And let them try to fix what’s utterly unfixable.

If they want to delay the individual mandate, fine: They can go first. If they want to fix the grandfathering rules so that people who want to keep their plans really can do so, fine: They can go first on that, too. Let them figure out the details. Let them try to make it work. The House can always vote to add its assent once the Senate has acted — all while noting, accurately, that even the delay or the grandfathering fix won’t make the whole of Obamacare successful or popular.

But with each fruitless effort to correct the uncorrectable, the vulnerable Senate Democrats effectively will be acknowledging that they were wrong to begin with.

The likelihood is that the Senate won’t act. It’s likely that the White House won’t let it happen. It’s likely that the vulnerable senators won’t even be able to get the more liberal members of the Senate Democratic caucus to go along with them. It’s likely that the Hagans and Pryors will be left to look both wrongheaded for having passed Obamacare and ineffectual for being unable to convince their leaders to try to improve it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gingrich: GOP Must Stop ‘Stumbling Into Next Crisis’

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreNewt Gingrich urged House Republicans to stop “stumbl[ing] into the next crisis” and instead seize the policy initiative by seeking “breakout” policies in healthcare, education, and other major policy areas.

Although the 2014 midterm elections already look to be fought over raising the debt ceiling or defunding ObamaCare, the former Speaker said Republicans must look in a different, more future-oriented direction.

“Instead of sitting around, passively waiting to stumble into the next crisis, we ought to be out there looking at new ideas,” Gingrich told The Hill in an interview.

These new ideas, said Gingrich, cover everything from promoting regenerative medicine to the potential benefits of online schooling and self-driving cars.

Gingrich’s new book “Breakout,” published Monday, argues that America is on the cusp of major technology-driven innovations in most major policy areas. But such a “breakout” requires overcoming the political and bureaucratic “prison guards of the past” who benefit from stagnation, Gingrich says.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Rides Wave of Cancellation Notices

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Photo Credit: Politico Since the Affordable Care Act was introduced in 2009, Republicans have dismissed President Barack Obama’s oft-repeated promise that anyone who liked their insurance plan would be able to keep it.

But was anyone paying attention?

For years, the media turned a blind eye to conservatives’ insistent warnings, often taking the president’s promise for granted. But this week, as health insurance cancellation letters started showing up in Americans’ mailboxes and the website rollout flopped, the GOP message finally broke into the mainstream.

On Monday, NBC News reported that at least half of the approximately 14 million Americans with individual insurance are set to have their health plans shut down by insurers under Obamacare. On Wednesday, the story was featured on the front page of some of the nation’s leading newspapers and was the main talking point for Republican lawmakers during the congressional hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

For Republicans, it’s been a long time coming.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dems Resume ‘Nuclear Option’ Threats to Bypass GOP, Confirm Obama Nominees

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Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/APSome Senate Democrats resumed calls for the so-called “nuclear option” Thursday after Senate Republicans blocked two presidential nominees.

Republicans have blocked the nomination of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the nomination of Patricia Millett to the U.S. Appeals Court for the Washington, D.C. Circuit by voting against cloture, effectively filibustering the nominations.

If invoked, the nuclear option would allow Democrats to push through presidential nominations without any support from Senate Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal in January to avert the nuclear option. In July, the two again negotiated on a “new normal,” in Reid’s words, to streamline the process for confirming presidential nominees. The deal, Reid said at the time, was that “Qualified executive nominees must not be blocked on a procedural supermajority vote.” An exception was made for “extraordinary circumstances.”

But after the Watt and Millett votes, the nuclear option is back on the table, some Democrats have declared.

Read more from this story HERE.

G.O.P. Filibuster of 2 Obama Picks Sets Up Fight

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/APSenate Republicans on Thursday thwarted the confirmation of two of President Obama’s nominees, one to a powerful appeals court and another to a home-lending oversight post, setting up a confrontation with Democrats that could escalate into a larger fight over limiting the filibuster and restrict how far the minority party can go to block a president’s agenda.

In a series of swift back-to-back votes, Republicans first blocked the nomination of Representative Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, to become the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency — a rare affront to a sitting member of Congress who has an extensive record of public service.

Next Republicans, who have accused the president of trying to tip the court’s ideological balance in Democrats’ favor, quickly dispensed with the nomination of Patricia Ann Millett to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A former government lawyer whose husband serves in the military, she has worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations. The White House chose her as a test of how far Republicans would go to derail a qualified nominee.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a longtime member of the Senate and a fierce protector of its arcane institutions, said he believed the rejection of the two nominees was grounds to re-examine the filibuster rules, which some senior Senate Democrats have advocated.

“I think it’s time for some common sense on confirmations,” said Mr. Biden, who was in the Capitol to swear in Cory Booker, a Democrat, as New Jersey’s newest senator. He called the loss a “gigantic disappointment.”

Read more from this story HERE.

McCain: We’ll Try to Pass Immigration Changes After GOP Primaries

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Photo Credit: AFPSen. John McCain (R-AZ) gave the clearest indication that proponents of comprehensive immigration reform may make their final–and strongest–push to get legislation passed next year after House Republicans make it through their primaries.

“I think conventional wisdom is that time is not on our side,” McCain told reporters on Monday after an event in Chicago. “But there are a number of members of Congress who have primaries and when those primaries are done, they may be more inclined to address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.”

President Barack Obama has urged Congress to pass immigration reform legislation this year. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is reportedly going to bring legislation to the floor within the next month and other House Republican leaders have indicated support for piecemeal pieces of legislation that can make it to conference with the Senate, where proponents and opponents of immigration reform had said a pathway to citizenship will prevail.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Tea Partiers Snub GOP in 2014

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Photo Credit: AP Hard-line conservatives aren’t just sticking it to the national GOP by shutting down the government and bringing the nation to the brink of default – they’re also refusing to pony up to help their party defend the House in 2014.

With a little more than a year until the midterm election, many leaders of the shutdown strategy have yet to donate to the National Republican Congressional Committee, records show. At least eight of the debate’s 20 or so most outspoken figures have not given any money to the NRCC, and others have forked over token amounts.

Their refusal to contribute to the House GOP’s political arm, coming as Republicans are getting thumped by Democrats in the money race, is causing heartburn and frustration among Republican strategists charged with laying the groundwork for next year’s races. They say it is reinforcing a perception of the conservative gang that they’re only out for themselves and don’t much care about advancing the party’s larger cause.

Take Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, the libertarian acolyte of Ron Paul and one of the most outspoken lawmakers for a hard line on the budget and debt negotiations. Amash, who voted against the final deal to reopen the government, hasn’t contributed to the NRCC this year, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Nor has he given to the committee at any point during his two terms in Congress.

Read more from this story HERE.