Photo: Gage Skidmore
Update: The three-week CR passed, with Obamacare intact. Apparently we’re mice.
Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann implored House GOPers to defund the Affordable Care Act at a forum at the Capitol on Wednesday evening, calling the upcoming vote on a three-week continuing resolution “our mice and men moment.” Speaking to a small audience of about two dozen mostly junior staffers, interns, and reporters, Bachmann warned that the continuing resolution, along with an upcoming vote to raise the debt ceiling, represent House GOPers’ last best chance to defund the law, nearly one year after it was signed into law.
“This is our mice or men moment. We need to show whether we are mice or men,” Bachmann said. “It is not for us to wait for us to fight when it’s easy… Now is our moment. What are we made of: Are we mice, or are we men?”
Well?
Bachmann wants her colleagues to vote against any continuing resolution that doesn’t explicitly strip funding from health care reform—although as Alex Altman notes, a continuing resolution can’t defund Obamacare.
“They wanted what they wanted, the people of the United States be damned,” Bachmann said. “This was a fraud that was perpetrated on the people and on the Congress. We should be shouting from the rooftops, ‘Give the money back!'”
Bachmann was joined at the event by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Reps. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Michael Burgess (R-Texas), and Steve King (R-Iowa), and representatives from the Cato Institute and tea party groups. The panelists mostly stuck to the now-familiar talking points—ending frivolous lawsuits, for instance—with a few exceptions.
“It’s a tsunami,” said Jim Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association, referring to the backlash against Obamacare. “I know it’s a bad word because of what’s going on, but that tsunami, that political tsunami, is offshore.”
As part of a “March Madness” theme, organizers distributed brackets for “The Real March Madness,” pitting the 64 “worst things about Obamacare” in an NCAA tournament-style format (sample first-round matchup: “Your $ Advertise this law” vs. “‘Doc fix’ = States’ Problem”).
My money’s still on Kansas.
