I consider it my job to understand congressional procedure but my eyes just glaze over when I try to understand what the House Republicans are trying to do with the Continuing Resolution and the ObamaCare defunding bills. As best as I can tell, their plan is like a Swiss Watch. They are going to pass a “clean” government-funding bill but with a rule attached that they can’t vote for it when it comes back from the Senate unless the Senate has had a vote on defunding ObamaCare. It’s okay if the Senate doesn’t pass the ObamaCare defunding bill, just so long as they have a vote on it.
The thing about this, and maybe someone can correct me if I am wrong, is that I do not believe the House can force the Senate to vote on anything. All Harry Reid has to do is to tell John Boehner to “stuff it.” And then it’s right back on Boehner’s plate. He’ll either have to change the rule or be responsible for a government shutdown.
In any case, the conservatives revolted against even this crazy plan because they know that it won’t work. But their plan won’t work any better. Their plan is to include the ObamaCare defunding language in the Continuing Resolution itself. Then they expect the Senate to take the blame if they don’t concur. To try to bolster their case, they expect the Senate Republicans to filibuster any Senate version of the CR that doesn’t include the defunding. This way, they can say that the House passed something but the Democratically-controlled Senate didn’t. Except, the reason the Senate wouldn’t have acted is because of a Republican filibuster.
Because this demented logic seems compelling to most of the House Republican caucus, Boehner and Cantor just had to delay the vote on their own ridiculous plan to next week.
ObamaCare is not going away, and neither is The Crazy.
