Senator Cruz Pans Latest GOP ObamaCare Strategy – Not Fooled By 'Procedural Chicanery'

Erick Erickson sounded an alert on Red State last night regarding a ruse the GOP controlled House is attempting to employ in order to thwart the Defund-ObamaCare effort. 

The plan is to pass the real CR that fully funds Obamacare, then pass a fake bill that defunds Obamacare. The Senate will pass the CR, and throw the defunding bill in the garbage. But, Cantor and Session’s theory is that conservatives are so stupid that they will clap like trained seals at the fake bill, and meanwhile not notice that the House just fully funded Obamacare.
Let me break down their plan for you. House leadership will pass a continuing resolution in the House. It will fund Obamacare. Cantor and Sessions will also make sure a separate resolution to defund Obamacare gets passed that would amend the CR to defund Obamacare if the Senate votes for it, which they of course will not. These two separate votes will be combined with great fan fare to make it look like House Republicans are voting for a CR that defunds Obamacare. But the Senate will pass the CR that funds Obamacare, sending it to the President, and ignore the defund resolution.

Obamacare will be fully funded, but the GOP will get to tell its voters that it supported defunding Obamacare. Yes, they did. But only because they rigged the defunding effort to fail. This is a head pat to conservatives designed to screw them and the nation at a time more and more Americans are seeing employers shove them to part time work, cutting spousal benefits, or refusing insurance altogether because of Obamacare.

Fortunately, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is on to their tricks, and  released the following statement, this morning.

“Last night, news reports surfaced that the House of Representatives might vote to ‘defund Obamacare’ in a way that easily allows Senate Democrats to keep funding Obamacare. If House Republicans go along with this strategy, they will be complicit in the disaster that is Obamacare.
“The American people are not surprised that politicians in Washington–of both parties–are afraid to take a stand. But another symbolic vote against Obamacare is meaningless. Obamacare is the biggest job killer in America, and people are hurting.
“House Republicans should pass a continuing resolution that funds government in its entirely–except Obamacare–and that explicitly prohibits spending any federal money, mandatory or discretionary, on Obamacare. They should not use any procedural chicanery to enable Harry Reid to circumvent that vote.
“If you oppose Obamacare, don’t fund Obamacare. Our elected leaders should listen to the American people.”

UPDATE:

Via Dean Clancy of Freedomworks:

House Republicans have the power to deal ObamaCare a mortal blow, if they really want to. They just don’t want to use that power at this time, in this fashion. It’s a “difference of strategy,” they say, not of goals. Except that the only “better” strategy they can come up with is to send standalone bills to the Senate to die. 
The only way to win is to attach defunding to a must-pass bill. The CR is that bill.

Happily, we can stop Speaker Boehner’s “deem and pass” ploy — by bringing down the rule.

By bringing down the rule, we can force Boehner and Company into a negotiation, the non-negotiable element of which must be “regular order,” i.e., no parliamentary tricks. 

Let the House work its will. Let the two chambers negotiate. Let Congress and the President negotiate. But do not try to rig the outcome through parliamentary ploys. 

If Boehner and Company refuse to allow regular order, the remedy is simple: 

Bring down the rule.

The House is slated to vote two days from now.

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