Tea-Publican plot to take the country hostage over ‘ObamaCare’ is coming undone

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Best headline of the day goes to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

Who's Piggy?

I believe we have now advanced to the Lord of the Flies phase of the shutdown the government over Obamacare primal scream.

He is referring to teabagger Mike Lee To GOP On Obamacare: ‘If You Fund It, You’re For It’:

Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) put the GOP on notice Tuesday by
characterizing a vote against shutting down the government by refusing
to fund the Affordable Care Act as endorsing the law outright.

"Defund it, or own it. If you fund it, you're for it," Lee said on the Senate floor.

Lee, joined by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), is
spearheading an effort not to fund the government unless it excludes
appropriations to implement Obamacare. The lawmakers are finding severe resistance within their own ranks, however.

The new "compromise caucus" of the old guard of the GOP which has emerged in the Senate is pushing back against these Tea Party economic terrorists. And it looks as if the terrorist plot to hold the country hostage to extort killing "ObamaCare" is coming undone. Can you hear their primal screams?

Sahil Kapur reports, Conservatives Concede Defeat In Obamacare Shutdown Fight:

Multiple conservatives leading the charge to shut down the government
if Obamacare isn’t defunded have begun to admit it’s a lost cause as
senior Republicans put the kibosh on the plan.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) lamented
Monday afternoon that Republicans are too “scared” to follow through
with the plan to withhold support for funding the government after the
Sept. 30 deadline unless Obamacare is defunded.

“The problem right now is we don’t have Republicans willing to stand
up and do this,” he said on The Andrea Tantaros Show, a conservative
talk radio program. “We need 41 Republicans in the Senate or 218
Republicans in the House, to stand together, to join me, to join Mike
Lee, to join Marco Rubio, all of whom have said, we will not vote for a
single continuing resolution that funds even a penny of Obamacare.”

Late last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) laughed out loud when Sean Hannity of Fox News asked if Republicans have the “courage” to stand tough against legislation that funds Obamacare.

“Frankly, probably not,” the senator said.

As far as they’re concerned, these two lawmakers are pressing on with
their demands, along with 10 other senators who signed a letter by Sen.
Mike Lee (R-UT) pledging not to fund the government unless it excludes
appropriations to implement the Affordable Care Act. But they’re far
short of a critical mass and facing headwinds not just from Democrats
but from GOP leaders who recognize the perils of shutting down the
government over Obamacare.

Senior Republicans are deriding the plan as “dumb,” “silly” and a “temper tantrum,” warning that it will fail and damage the party’s prospects in the upcoming 2014 elections.

“[I]t’s dishonest,” conservative Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) told the Washington Examiner, dismissing the plan as “a denial of reality mixed with a whole bunch of hype.”

The GOP crazy base isn’t giving up. A letter signed by the usual suspects of the reactionary right — including Heritage Action,
Club For Growth and FreedomWorks and Grover Norquist’s Americans for
Tax Reform — calls on House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority
Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) “to include language fully defunding Obamacare
when they consider their upcoming legislation to fund the government.”

The divisions reflect the GOP’s catch-22 over Obamacare. After riling
up their base and repeatedly promising to spare no effort to thwart the
health care law, they face the wrath of conservatives for refusing to
put themselves on the line in service of the cause, despite daunting
political odds. Some conservative activists say they feel played by the GOP for regularly invoking Obamacare to raise money but failing to fight it when it counts.

“I think I want to challenge Obamacare on all fronts, but that’s a
bridge too far for me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told TPM in the
Capitol on Tuesday. “As much as I want to replace Obamacare I’m not
going to deny Social Security payments, funding of the military and the
FBI at a time of great national security concerns. I think that’s a
bridge too far.”

At his RedState.com blog, FAUX News contributor Erick Erickson (Piggy?) has a series of primal scream posts
expressing his anger and contempt toward Republicans for caving and, in
his view, bamboozling conservatives about their commitment to stopping
Obamacare.

“They will send you fundraising appeals telling you to stand with the GOP against Obamacare, please send them money,” he wrote
on Sunday night. “But when confronted with the challenge of opposing
continuing funding of the government if that funding goes to Obamacare,
their testicular fortitude runs down their leg and out the door. They
rally their usual op-ed voices to call conservative dumb. They
preemptively surrender. They behave worse than the French.”

Bwahahaha! Erick Erickson is a total tool. A Monday report conducted by the nonpartisan Congressional Research
Service states that the implementation of Obamacare would continue even
if Republicans successfully forced a government shutdown. Nonpartisan CRS Report: Obamacare Would Continue Even If Government Shuts Down:

A Monday report
conducted by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service states that
the implementation of Obamacare would continue even if Republicans
forced a government shutdown by demanding to withhold the law's funding.

"It appears that substantial [Affordable Care Act] implementation [would] continue during a lapse in annual appropriations that resulted in a
temporary government shutdown," the report said.

Moreover, a government shutdown would not suspend the individual mandate requirement, according to the CRS.

These Tea-Publican economic terrorists are threatening to take the country hostage and to blow up the economy and full faith and credit of the United States to extort a ransom which will never be paid. There is no end-game scenario in which they can achieve their stated goal. It is an act of rage driven by madness.

UPDATE: Greg Sargent writes, "Republican leaders know there isn't going to be any government shutdown
confrontation to force the defunding of the Affordable Care Act, but
they won't say so." GOP leaders refuse to level with the base about Obamacare.