Washington Examiner: Obamacare delay votes strengthen House leadership for government funding fight

Washington Examiner - Conn Carroll

A united House Republican caucus passed two bills delaying key parts of President Obama’s health care law Wednesday, demonstrating that House Republican leaders are not dependent on Democratic votes for high profile legislation.

Republicans united
Despite opposition from some prominent conservative activists, only one Republican, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., voted with Democrats against both the bill to delay implementation of Obamacare’s employer mandate, and the bill to delay implementation of Obamacare’s individual mandate.

Referencing a similar successful effort to pass the farm bill with just Republican votes last week, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, told National Review‘s Robert Costa, “The speaker’s hand is strengthened. In politics, you’ve got to show that you can get bills through without the other side. We did that, and we got back to where we needed to be as a Republican team.”

Dems in disarray
While Republicans acted in almost total unison against Obama’s signature domestic accomplishment, House Democrats lost almost three dozen votes on the employer mandate delay (final vote: 264 to 161) and almost two dozen on the individual mandate vote (final vote: 251 to 174).

Recent polls from both Gallup and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have clearly established that Obamacare’s employer mandate is a job killer. According to Gallup, 41 percent of small businesses have frozen hiring because of Obamacare, 19 percent have had to fire people, and 38 percent said they “have pulled back on their plans to grow their business.”

A separate Chamber of Commerce poll of small businesses found that 27 percent will cut hours to reduce full time employees, 24 percent will reduce hiring, and 23 percent will replace full time employees with part-time workers to avoid triggering the mandate.

The only real surprise is how many Democrats voted with their caucus against the delays.

September showdown
Neither the employer mandate delay, nor the individual mandate delay have any chance of getting to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., would never let his caucus take such embarrassing votes.

But yesterday’s votes were still meaningful. They demonstrated that House Republican leaders can produce the ‘ayes’ necessary to pass key legislation without Democratic help. This will give them greater leverage when they negotiate the next continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded past the end of September.

Look for House Republicans to demand some real cuts in Obamacare implementation funding, especially regarding health insurance subsidies.

Online: Washington Examiner