Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin warned conservatives on Sunday evening that they should be wary of a potential move from House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to fund Obamacare in a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the last minute as the fiscal year is ending.
“I think that when we are dealing with people who have continually and repeatedly made backroom deals and voted under the cover of darkness over and over and over and over, that we have to expect that that’s what they’re going to do again,” Martin said in an appearance on Breitbart News Sunday with Stephen K. Bannon on Sunday night. “We must watch and keep the pressure on and do everything that we can to make sure that does not happen.”
Technically, unless Cantor abruptly ends a long-planned scheduled recess week as he has publicly suggested he might, there are only five working days for the House left in September before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. At that time, Congress needs to pass a new CR and the president needs to sign it or the government will shut down.
“On Tuesday when the House of Representatives gets back in [from the weekend], they’re going to have to make a decision very quickly,” Martin said. “There are only five legislative days left. They have this week from Tuesday to Friday. They’re out next week. And then they have one more day before we hit October 1, and October 1 is when our new fiscal year starts for government.”
Last week, Cantor tried to allow a House vote defunding ObamaCare but written in a manner that would allow the Senate to quickly restore the funding for the president’s healthcare law, according to a document obtained by Breitbart News. However, within 24 hours of a Tea Party Patriots Exempt America rally on Capitol Hill, Cantor withdrew the proposal.
Though Cantor’s plan fell through, conservative congressmen have not yet passed an alternative. “They are in limbo,” Martin said. “What’s really sad is we haven’t stopped them. What’s stopping them right now is the House leadership. We’ve given them a path, we’ve given them a direction and we’ve shown them what need to be done.”
Right now, the only CR proposal before the House is one offered by Reps. Tom Graves (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Mark Meadows (R-NC), among more than 40 cosponsors. While it currently bears the bill number H.J.62, Martin noted it may change numbers this week. Martin endorsed the new CR, whose lead sponsor is Graves, on the show with Bannon on Sunday evening, telling listeners to call their members of Congress to push them to support it. “If your congressman isn’t a cosponsor, encourage them to be a cosponsor,” she said.
“It’s exactly what we’ve been talking about from the end of July all the way through August,” Martin said of the conservative plan. “It’s now in a bill and it’s being introduced and will be a Continuing Resolution… They’re saying fund the government but do not fund Obamacare and fund it for an entire year. And I believe it’s at current spending levels.”
Bannon also asserted that conservatives do not want to shut the government down but want to simply defund Obamacare and pay for the rest of government at current levels. Martin agreed. “I think it’s important to highlight that means fund portions of the government that the Tea Party movement doesn’t even like,” she said. “Also, it is to fund the government for a full year so we don’t keep coming to the brink every 60 to 90 days the way we’ve been doing for the last few years. We need some stability in our government. What we’ve been asking for is to fund the entire government, fund it for a year, just do not pay for Obamacare.”
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