House Republicans threaten shutdown

WASHINGTON – House Republicans united Wednesday around a plan to use the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law, confident the American people are on their side.

House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, yielded to his right flank by agreeing to attach the health care law repeal to a must-pass bill to keep the government funded past Sept. 30. A vote is expected Friday on a bill that would allow the government to stay open for the next few months.

The measure is all but certain to pass the Republican-led House, but faces rejection in the Senate, where the Democratic majority has shown little interest in undoing Obama’s signature domestic achievement.

Without a resolution by Oct. 1, the start of the new federal fiscal year, the government will run out of money to keep federal workers on the job and provide basic services.

Boehner and his leadership team had tried to avoid a prolonged battle over government funding, but the speaker saw no other option after the most conservative House members revolted last week.

“Every member in this room is for defunding Obamacare,” Boehner told his colleagues in a private meeting in the Capitol basement, according to a source in the room. “We’re going to send it over to the Senate, so our conservative allies over there can continue the fight.”

Top Republicans worry the party will be blamed if government services are interrupted, much the way the party suffered during the last shutdowns in the mid-1990s. They were hoping to hold off the fight over repealing the health care law until next month, when Obama may be forced to bargain in exchange for the administration’s request to raise the debt limit to borrow money to avoid defaulting on the nation’s bills.

But many rank-and-file Republicans believe stopping the health care law is their constituents’ top priority.

“We’re doing what the American people are asking us to do,” said third-term Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind. “I think now is the time. You take the best opportunity that you have.”

Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., among those leading the fight, said, “I think over the next 12 days there’s going to be a strong argument from the American people saying this is the path forward.”

Polls show more Americans oppose the law, the Affordable Care Act, than support it, even as the online health insurance marketplaces are set to open Oct. 1. Obama on Wednesday asked the Business Roundtable, an organization of top business leaders, to use its influence to encourage lawmakers to “not promise apocalypse every three months.”

“I think this is the time for us to say once and for all we can’t afford these kinds of plays,” Obama said. “I know the American people are tired of it. I’m tired of it, and I suspect you’re tired of it too.”

How Congress will handle the Sept. 30 deadline for a government funding resolution remains an open question.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will probably ask Democrats to strip the health care law repeal from the resolution, but Republicans in the Senate will be under enormous pressure to prevent that.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a potential presidential contender who has been a vocal opponent of the health care law, and other conservative senators are being urged by their House colleagues to mount a round-the-clock filibuster, if needed, to thwart Democrats.