Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican chair of the House Budget Committee, argued on a local news program that the GOP should delay parts of Obamacare, particularly the individual mandate. Ryan said that the effort to defund the law, advocated by some Republicans in Congress, would not stop Obamacare from being implemented.
“One of the problems is there’s a little misconception out there, that if we stop funding what we call discretionary spending, that that stops Obamacare,” Ryan said on WISN-TV Sunday. “It doesn’t. Entitlements continue on. Social Security and Medicare, those things continue, even if we have a government shutdown. Obamacare is an entitlement. So it’s not within the power of the House Republicans unilaterally to defund Obamacare by just passing one bill and it happens. To defund or delay Obamacare, Obama himself has to sign that bill into law. And so what we’re trying to do is figure out the best way of maximizing our leverage to get the president to delay his health-care law.”
