But by putting the Graves "defund" language in the CR, Woodall said House Republicans are showing they will consistently fight Obamacare each day rather than pick their battles. Said Woodall:
"I’ve always believed the fight was not on the CR. The fight’s on the debt ceiling. History tells us the fight’s on the debt ceiling. A lot of folks think we need to fight on the CR, too. This plan gets us that fight. ... There was the big discussion of defund, and I’ve always been pushing delay as that sweet spot that we can get folks from both sides on. For Tom to come and lead that effort, he’s got a lot of credibility on those issues and it made a big difference. We’re not all going to get the play call we want every single time. What we need to know is they will come and listen."
If you are like me, every time the House Leadership in the Congress changes the play, I have to wonder about the rationale. Since today's primer sets up a football analogy let's talk quarterbacks. If you are Coach John Boehner you are constantly having to analyze the game situation. This week Coach Boehner has substituted a new QB, House leader Eric Cantor has been benched and Georgia 14th Congressman Tom Graves has been inserted. The game situation has not changed. The Senate will not defund Obamacare, but some Senate Democrats are getting nervous about their careers on the playing field.
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Mere mortals like myself do not have a crystal ball, so I have no idea who will return for the 114th Congress. Do we trust the Republicans, especially the Karl Rove types that do have crystal balls and are expert readers of things to come? They say the food is great in the Skyboxes. 66% of Americans," the Owners", oppose shutting down the Government, "the Game", while 70% oppose the ACA, "Rule change", what should the Coach and players do?
Do we trust the Democrats who speak of hostage taking, "Holding", and the legitimacy of the ACA touchdown? Did they forget that they were not penalized for the False Start, it took with the reconciliation process to score one for the ACA?
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So now the crowd is getting into the game and the volume in the Stadium is exponentially louder. We are playing for keeps. Who will win? The only certainty is that everyone is going to lose, if we continue to think that the team, "Government", can spend more money than it can possibly bring in, "Ticket Sales", to pay all the players and keep the fans, "Owners", happy.
Did you hear League President Obama that increasing the Debt limit does not increase our debt? You have to hear it live. I recommend the full version, but for those fans that watch only the instant replays… Listen !
Maybe the Owners think they can continue watch from the stands, allowing the players to print money, delay contract negotiations, ignore the Constitution, I mean "Rules". If you continue and read the article below you will better understand what Coach Boehner is dealing with on his team. Congressman Woodall says” We’re not all going to get the play call we want every single time. What we need to know is they will come and listen."
The “They” in this quote is new the Quarterback “Tom Graves”. Oh well, the worse that could happen is that we make Soccer the National Sport. It is “Football” after all.
Source: AJC.com September 20, 2013
WASHINGTON -- Spurred on by the defund-or-bust crowd, House Republican leaders today announced that their first move in the legislative game of speed chess to avoid a government shutdown will include a plan authored by Rep. Tom Graves to strip funding from Obamacare.
A vote is due Friday on a spending bill that will extend government funding, at sequestration-chopped levels, through the middle of December -- while also defunding Obamacare forever. The latter aspect, Graves said, is taken from a bill he co-authored with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the conservative star of this Congress who might have presidential aspirations.
This moment was in some ways forced by another Graves bill that had been picking up steam since last week: A move to extend government funding by a year, while delaying the implementation of Obamacare by a year as well. Graves and his 70 co-sponsors comprised a bloc of House Republicans that rebuffed leadership's attempt last week to pass a "continuing resolution" with an anti-Obamacare piece that could be stripped out by the Senate and sent along to the president.
Graves, a Republican from Ranger, emerged from this morning's House GOP conference meeting endorsing the CR plan.
"What we saw over the last several days ... is the conference was unifying around the concept that we were proposing because we focused on keeping the government open and protecting our constituents from Obamacare," Graves said.
Said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, who co-sponsored Graves' bill: "Because of his work, we’re going to have a better solution to this than was proposed before. So I think [Graves] deserves a lot of credit."
The CR will likely be returned to sender by the Democrat-controlled Senate without the defunding language, setting up an interesting dance in which House Speaker John Boehner might have to court Democrats to pass a spending bill.
But fear not, said Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville. There is still the debt-ceiling fight in October. Woodall said the plan appears to be to attach a one-year Obamacare to the debt hike as well. This truly must-pass bill -- a shutdown is far less disruptive than a default -- puts the GOP on stronger ground, he said.
But by putting the Graves "defund" language in the CR, Woodall said House Republicans are showing they will consistently fight Obamacare each day rather than pick their battles. Said Woodall:
"I’ve always believed the fight was not on the CR. The fight’s on the debt ceiling. History tells us the fight’s on the debt ceiling. A lot of folks think we need to fight on the CR, too. This plan gets us that fight. ... There was the big discussion of defund, and I’ve always been pushing delay as that sweet spot that we can get folks from both sides on. For Tom to come and lead that effort, he’s got a lot of credibility on those issues and it made a big difference. We’re not all going to get the play call we want every single time. What we need to know is they will come and listen."
