In what is seen as a major turn around, House Speaker, John Boehner has announced that the House will move to defund Obamacare, while providing funding for the rest of the government, at least on a temporary basis. This will put pressure on Harry Reid and the senate democrats, who have been trying to convince voters that the republicans are trying to shut down the government.
This effectively ends the compromise Boehner had made with the democrats to try to sell his fellow republicans on the idea of funding the unpopular program. The bill that's expected to be offered today, would tie the defunding of Obamacare with the continuing resolution, meant to keep the government running. The bill has about 80 cosponsors, with eleven new ones signing onboard yesterday alone.
Boehner has originally planned to send two separate bills to the senate, one a continuing resolution and a second on defunding Obamacare. That would have allowed Reid and the democdrats to sidestep a vote on the defunding bill.
Democrats are warning republicans that they will take the brunt of taxpayer anger should they take this path, with Obama saying,
"We're hearing that a certain faction of Republicans, in the House of Representatives in particular are arguing for government shutdown or even a default for the United States of America ... if they don't get 100 percent of what they want."
On the other hand, democrats are not offering any concessions on the budget bill and in fact, want to spend more and increase the debt. There are no clear signal who the voters would fault at this point. Recent polling suggests that the Obamacare bill remains as unpopular today as it was when it was passed. The Real Clear average finds 38% favor Obamacare, while 52.2% are against the bill.
There could be a measure of politics here as the republican sweep of 2010 has been attributed to the opposition of Obamacare.
