Coburn: Shutting Down Gov't Won't Defund Obamacare

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) claimed Tuesday that shutting down the government would not stop Obamacare from being implemented and accused Republicans like Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) of misleading conservatives by pushing to defund the healthcare law in the next round of budget negotiations. 

Coburn cited a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report that revealed Obamacare “might continue” during a government shutdown.

“It appears that substantial ACA implementation might continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a temporary government shutdown,” the CRS said.

According to The Hill, Coburn’s office interpreted the memo to mean that, “if government were shut down, funding for Obamacare would still continue,” because the CRS report estimated “much of the administration’s implementation funding comes from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) itself–not from the spending bills some conservatives are threatening to defeat.”

Coburn claimed the attempt to defund Obamacare was a “failed strategy” that was “misleading the conservative base because it’s not achievable.”