Many Republicans who are eyeing a run for president in 2016 are backing an all-or-nothing plan to defund ObamaCare.
More than half a dozen possible GOP White House candidates support that strategy while a handful are calling for a more nuanced approach to defunding or repealing the healthcare law. Another five are dodging questions and a couple others are not signaling one way or another.
In short, some are willing to go to the brink and beyond of a government shutdown to defund ObamaCare. But it’s far from unanimous.
Still, the results of The Hill’s survey favors the shutdown-showdown strategy hatched by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), thanks to outspoken endorsements from GOP frontrunners, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
The Florida Republican and three other colleagues also entertaining presidential runs — Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) — have backed Lee’s effort by refusing to support government funding bills that include money for ObamaCare.
Photo Credit: APThe Tea Party is getting back on more solid ground — midterm elections where in 2010 the fledgling, grassroots movement unseated so-called “Washington insiders” and helped Republicans win control of the House.
The loosely-knit coalition of groups has already targeted some of the Republican Party’s most established candidates, accusing them of compromising their conservative principles in negotiating with Democrats.
The Tea Party Express even boasted this winter that promising to mount a primary challenge against Georgia Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss forced him to retire instead of seeking a third term.
“Lest anyone think this decision is about a primary challenge, I have no doubt that had I decided to be a candidate, I would have won re-election,” responded Chambliss, who was part of a bipartisan Senate group that tried to reduce the national debt.
One of the most recent, high-profile Tea Party challenges is in South Carolina, where Nancy Mace, the first female graduate of The Citadel, is trying to unseat two-term Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose efforts to pass immigration-reform legislation appears most upsetting to the movement.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-12 01:09:302016-04-11 11:17:13Tea Party Returns to More Solid Ground, Midterm Challenges to Democrats and Republicans
Photo Credit: MediaiteIf one Maryland town hall is any indication, Republican voters are not happy with how little Republican politicians are doing to reign in the government. Greta Van Susteren took viewers to a town hall where Congressman Andy Harris was confronted by constituents angry about NSA surveillance, the Obama administration, and Republicans not doing enough for them. One man scolded Harris, “We’re dying out here because you guys are being nice guys!”
One man complained about NSA spying, saying Congress needs to “come clean” with the public about the government’s secret interpretation of the law. Harris assured him that he’s personally outraged by NSA surveillance, adding that they have “not seen the end of” investigations into Benghazi and the IRS scandals.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-09 01:21:202016-04-11 11:17:28Video: GOP Town Hall Explodes With Anger – ‘We’re Losing The Country’ So Quit Being ‘Nice Guys’!
Photo Credit: APAs Congress faces a fast-approaching deadline on passing a federal spending bill, Republican lawmakers are reviving a Tea Party-backed plan with a catchy title that they claim could balance the budget.
The so-called “Penny Plan” would, according to its sponsors, balance the federal budget in two years by using just a 1 percent reduction in spending.
The lawmakers are pitching the plan in the simplest terms — cutting a penny from every dollar the government spends so that spending will soon equal revenue. They cast the plan as a pick-and-choose alternative to the sequester’s across-the-board budget cuts.
“Everybody should be able to live with one percent less in order to help bring this country back from the brink of catastrophic failure,” bill sponsor and Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi said in submitting the legislation just before August recess.
Enzi is joined by fellow GOP Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky; John Barrasso, of Wyoming; Jim Risch, of Idaho; David Vitter, of Louisiana; Johnny Isakson, of Georgia; and Marco Rubio, of Florida. Republican Georgia Rep. Austin Scott introduced similar legislation in the House.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-08 01:34:002016-04-11 11:17:31Republicans Revive ‘Penny Plan’ as Sequester Alternative to Balance Budget
Photo Credit: West Midlands PoliceAn anonymous Republican senator has delayed a vote on legislation that would require police to obtain a warrant before accessing emails and other online messages.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) pushed for a vote on the bill before Congress left for its August recess. He secured unanimous support from Democrats, but at least one Republican objected to the bill, according to a Democratic Senate aide.
Leahy had hoped to fast-track the bill to passage with unanimous support, but the opposition means a vote will be delayed until at least September.
A Leahy aide said the senator will continue to work with Republicans to address their concerns. The Senate could pass the legislation without unanimous support, but it would take up valuable floor time to override a filibuster.
It is unclear which Republican or Republicans objected to the bill, S. 607.
They call it the Grand Old Party. It may be old, but it’s anything but grand right now.
And the Republicans who replaced the Whigs may soon be as relevant as Andrew Jackson’s party if they are not very careful.
What do I mean?
America is at a politically critical turning point – a point of no return.
If Republicans don’t use the power they have in the House of Representatives to defeat amnesty and defund Obamacare, they risk political obsolescence – as well as a future America with no chance to return to constitutionally limited government.
The way things look right now, Republicans do not have the will or intestinal fortitude even to fight back, let alone play the cards voters overwhelmingly gave them in 2010.
Maybe Republicans need a reminder: They control one-half of a bicameral legislature – the half needed to approve all funding for all programs, agencies, departments and initiatives of the federal government.
Republicans have the power to kill Obamacare by defunding it. They don’t need a single Democratic vote.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-08-03 03:57:392016-04-11 11:17:48The End of Republican Party
Photo Credit: Reuters By Ashley Killough. The feuding between Republicans Chris Christie and Rand Paul continued Tuesday as the senator from Kentucky cautioned the governor from New Jersey was picking a fight with the wrong guy.
In an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” Paul defended himself against Christie’s most recent allegations that the senator was bringing home too much money for his state.
“This is the king of bacon talking about bacon,” Paul said about Christie. Both are considered potential 2016 contenders for the Republican presidential nomination.
Earlier in the day, the outspoken governor chastised Kentucky for taking more federal money than New Jersey, saying the Blue Grass state gets back $1.51 on every dollar it sends to Washington, while the Garden State receives 61 cents.
“So if Senator Paul wants to start looking at where he’s going to cut spending to afford defense, maybe he should start cutting the pork barrel spending that he brings home to Kentucky,” Christie told reporters Tuesday in Little Ferry.
By Alexis Levinson. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie launched another attack in his ongoing battle with Republican Sen. Rand Paul, dismissing him as a “Washington politician” and criticizing him for taking pork for his home state of Kentucky.
Speaking on a panel in Colorado last week, Christie described the libertarian approach to foreign policy as “dangerous,” and acknowledged that Paul was one of the people engaging in that approach. Since then, the two likely 2016 Republican presidential contenders have lobbed insults back and forth at each other.
“I was asked a question at a forum in Aspen and I gave an answer,” Christie said Tuesday. “Now, I know that for politicians in Washington, DC this a completely foreign concept. They think that there has to be some, like, master plan behind every utterance you make. You’ve covered me long enough to know that there often is not. If you ask me a question, I give an answer. That’s what people expect from people in public life and that’s what I did.”
By Alec Hill. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul called New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s criticisms of him “not very smart” during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity Monday night, adding that disrespect for the Bill of Rights is even more dangerous than the “strain of libertarianism” that Christie had criticized.
“I think what is dangerous in our country is to forget that we have a Bill of Rights,” Paul said, “to forget about privacy, to give up on all of our liberty to say, We’re going to catch terrorism, but you have to live in a police state.”
The two have been engaged in a war of words ever since Christie disparaged “a strain of libertarianism that is going through both parties right now and making big headlines” as “a very dangerous thought” at a forum of the Aspen Institute in Colorado on July 25.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-31 04:30:452016-04-11 11:18:00Rand Paul Gets Feisty with “King of Bacon” Chris Christie as the War of Words Heats Up (+videos)
Photo Credit: WNDThe next presidential election is still three years away, but top-rated radio host Rush Limbaugh is already making a bold prediction about who will be the likely nominee for the Democratic Party.
“I think it’s going to be Chris Christie,” Limbaugh said on his national program Tuesday.
“I think the contest in 2016, the Democrat side, is gonna be between Rahm Emanuel and Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie.”
What makes the prediction especially noteworthy is that Christie, the governor of New Jersey, is at present a Republican, and he would have to switch parties to be nominated by the Democrats.
On June 5, Limbaugh first brought up the possibility of Christie looking to lead the Democratic ticket, saying at the time: “I’m not predicting it officially here, but I will not be surprised, if when 2016 rolls around and Governor Christie is seeking the presidency, I won’t be surprised if he seeks the Democrat Party nomination.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-31 04:23:002016-04-11 11:18:03Dems ‘Likely to Nominate this Republican for Prez’
Photo Credit: APSen. Ted Cruz believes Republicans can defund “Obamacare” if they stand together, but he said “scared” Republicans are standing in the way.
“What I can tell you is there are a lot of Republicans in Washington who are scared. They’re scared of being beaten up politically,” Cruz (R-Texas) told Glenn Beck on TheBlaze radio show Monday.
Cruz said there are too many members of the GOP that want to vote against Obamacare symbolically, but don’t actually want to follow throw.
“I’ve been astonished by how many Republicans in Washington want a fig leaf … but they don’t actually want to succeed,” Cruz told Beck.
As long as Republicans don’t cave, Cruz said, they can win the fight, a theme he reiterated in other media appearances Monday.
Photo Credit: APA nasty fight is brewing among Republicans over a proposal to defund Obamacare. Another intra-party fight is flaring over national security and the war on terror. And yet another is well under way over immigration reform. In each, some Republicans seem more fired up to go after each other than to take on President Obama and the Democrats. The conflicts could be signs that the party is headed toward all-out civil war. Or they could be part of an unhappy but temporary stretch for a party that still hasn’t gotten over its rejection by the voters in 2012.
It’s more likely that this is just a rocky time for a rejected and confused party. The conflicts inside the GOP today just don’t line up in the configuration of a classic civil war. There are multiple issues involved, and the lawmakers on various sides of various issues don’t lean the same way on each issue. Republicans who are opponents on one issue are allies on another. Looking at the Senate, for example, it’s unlikely that there will be a total civil war between Senate Faction A and Senate Faction B when some members of the opposing factions are united in Faction C, or Faction D, or so on. In other words, it may be that the Republican Party is too divided to have a real civil war. Perhaps chaos would be a better description. We’ll know more later.
What we know now is that GOP lawmakers are remarkably tense over the issue of defunding Obamacare. When I asked Sen. Tom Coburn about it Friday, he went off on the issue, calling the proposal “dishonest” and “hype,” not to mention “impossible.” It can’t be done, given the Republicans’ 46-vote minority in the Senate, Coburn argued, and the government shutdown that could result from such a maneuver would be disastrous for the GOP.
Coburn questioned the motives of the GOP senators — among them Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul — who are behind the effort, calling the move “a denial of reality mixed with a whole bunch of hype to promote groups and individuals.” And then: “The worst thing is being dishonest with your base about what you can accomplish, ginning everybody up and then creating disappointment.” Later, when I mentioned Lee specifically, Coburn responded, “Lee’s answer [to critics] is, ‘Give me a different strategy.’ Well, there isn’t one, because we lost the [election]. I’m getting phone calls from Oklahoma saying, ‘Support Mike Lee,’ and I’m ramming right back: Support him in destroying the Republican Party?”
Those are pretty strong words from a senior Republican about his fellow senators. And some other GOP senators echoed those sentiments. “I agree with my friend Dr. Coburn,” tweeted Sen. John McCain. And Richard Burr called the defunding ultimatum “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-30 03:31:512016-04-11 11:18:05Are Republicans Too Divided to Have a Civil War?
Many Republicans who are eyeing a run for president in 2016 are backing an all-or-nothing plan to defund ObamaCare. 
