House Republican leaders are hoping they can cobble together enough GOP support to pass a $3.8 trillion spending blueprint next week by luring in opponents with a provision that could be used to repeal Obamacare.
Conservatives tell the Washington Examiner it’s a plan that could work, even though they oppose the likely addition of $20 billion in defense spending that would add to the deficit.
They are attracted to budget language that calls for repeal of the Affordable Care Act under the budget reconciliation process, which requires only 51 votes to pass in the Senate and would thus prevent Democrats from blocking Obamacare’s repeal with a filibuster.
“We have a golden opportunity to basically make really, really positive changes to our healthcare law,” Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., an Obamacare opponent, said. “While there are parts of the budget that really give me heartburn, I’m trying to keep the end goal in sight.”
The budget process ground to a halt in a Wednesday evening committee markup after fiscal conservatives balked at the plan to hike defense spending, specifically the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which does not require offsets elsewhere in the budget.
Lawmakers who serve on the Defense Appropriations panel are insisting on the extra funds, pointing to an increase in terrorism threats worldwide and the strain on the military caused by past Pentagon reductions.
When the committee vote stalled, Republican leaders backed down and took the extra Overseas Contingency Operations money out, allowing a deficit-neutral budget to pass Thursday morning on a party line vote.
But Republican leaders plan to add the extra defense money back into the budget next week because they cannot afford to lose the support of their defense hawks.
“There is overwhelming support in our conference for providing additional resources to protect our national security,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday.
The money will prompt some conservatives to vote against the budget.
“I support the budget that the budget committee has just adopted,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., who was among the budget committee members who opposed the extra defense funding during the budget committee markup.
But Republican leaders are counting on the Obamacare provision to win over others in the conservative faction, including Salmon and Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., who are typically dead set against increasing any spending without making cuts elsewhere in the budget.
While the two are part of a faction of dozens of fiscal-minded conservatives who typically buck the leadership on spending issues, this time might be different because of the language allowing Obamacare to be repealed under the reconciliation process.
Huelskamp said he’s unhappy that Republicans don’t have a plan to pay for increases in defense spending, but he is not ruling out voting for the budget because it will offer perhaps the only chance for Congress to clear legislation that repeals Obamacare.
“That is the number one priority for me,” Huelskamp told the Examiner.
Republican leaders said they are working to win over conservatives so they can pass the budget and avoid a major party embarrassment after months of well publicized internal discord.
“These are difficult issues and we are trying to make a determination and then sell the points where we can stay together as a team,” House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told the Examiner.
