RCP's Caitlin Huey-Burns Breaks Down Obamacare Showdown In Congress
RCP political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns gives us the latest updates from Washington on the battle over Obamacare implementation.
TRACE GALLAGHER, FNC: Clearly, it is a political poker game here. You look at the Republicans' hand. Is it a good one? Are they bluffing? What do you see coming down in the next week?
CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS, RCP: It’s a little difficult for them at this time. Harry Reid is probably going to file to have a procedural vote as early as Wednesday. You have some conservatives in the Senate who are pledging to use any procedural means necessary to block a vote on the bill, that they actually like, but they know that Reid and the Democrats will strip away the Obamacare defunding part. So, Democrats are pointing to this kind of tension between the House and the Senate within the Republican Party and are stepping back and waiting to see how they handle it.
GALLAGHER: You’ve got a lot of Republican lawmakers who are being threatened by their own constituents back home, Caitlin. They’re saying, “If you vote for Obamacare, you vote to fund this, we start looking for somebody to fill your Senate seat.” So there's clearly a little pressure along the way as we go.
HUEY-BURNS: Absolutely, and many House Republicans are using that, they're polling from constituents who find the law - the law is very unpopular in their district - to push for this defund effort. However, you also have polls showing a majority of the American people saying that they don't want to defund Obamacare if it means shutting down the government, because we know the possible outcomes of shutting down the government, and what that would look like. It would be harmful to a lot of people there. So they are trying to balance those two.
GALLAGHER: And therein lays the pickle, because, as you mentioned, they don’t want the government shut down, but also a majority of people also don't like Obamacare, so you have lawmakers who really are in kind of a weird predicament here.
HUEY-BURNS: Likely what will happen is the Senate will run out the clock this week. There will be all sorts of delays. Mostly from Senate Republicans who really want to defund the law. They’ll probably send it back to the House, without the defund measure, and House Republicans will then, especially John Boehner, will have to make a difficult decision whether to approve this bill and take the fight on the debt ceiling, which is another upcoming battle, or does he use Democrats to help him pass this measure. The outcome isn't as clear and the outcome on the debt ceiling fight looming in October is just as unclear as well.
GALLAGHER: No, it’s not. John Boehner says he's going to keep on fighting. We’ll see.
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