By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Saturday the U.S. House of Representatives made changes to a Senate Continuing Resolultion (CR) that would fund the government but would also delay Obamacare for one year and permanently repeal the medical device tax.
Congresswoman Martha Roby (R) from Montgomery said, “ObamaCare will not work. ObamaCare enrollment is set to begin in two days, and there is doubt that the exchanges are ready, millions of Americans remain in the dark about the labyrinth of programs, and there is no certainty that the government can fulfill its promises. It’s just commonsense – this law needs to be delayed.”
Representative Roby said, “I believe we should fully repeal ObamaCare, and we have voted in the House to do so many times. The Senate has protected the harmful law at every turn. But now the President himself has made it clear that ObamaCare is not ready by delaying numerous parts of the law, including the employer mandate. Technological glitches, privacy concerns, and confusion have led Democratic friendly union bosses to call the law a ‘nightmare.’ One of the bills chief Democratic authors called its implementation a “train wreck.” Now, even rank-and-file Democrats in the Senate are starting to acknowledge that a delay is reasonable and sensible.”
If the Senate does not act on the House-passed legislation by midnight on October 1 certain government functions will begin to shutdown.
Rep Roby said, “I spent August traveling across my district and talking with my constituents. Their priorities are clear: Congress needs to protect the public from the dangerous consequences of ObamaCare while keeping the United States government up and running. Yet again the House has acted to do just that. It is past time that President Obama and Senate Democrats put pride of authorship aside and agree to delay this law for all Americans. The question is this: Are Harry Reid and Senate Democrats so committed to forcing this unpopular law on Americans that they would be willing to shutdown the federal government instead of allowing a one year delay? I certainly hope that is not the case.”
According to information provided from Rep Roby’s aide, Seth Morrow, if the Senate passes the latest House version of the CR: all parts of the Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, would be delayed for one year, the medical device tax would be repealed, military men and women would be paid in the event of a government shutdown, and the government would be funded through December 15, 2013.
Saturday’s proposal is actually a compromise proposal from last week’s CR which would have provided funding for government operations while completely defunding ObamaCare. The Democrat controlled U.S. Senate struck the defunding language and returned the measure to the House on Friday.
The Obama Administration has already announced that it would delay until 2015 enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, which requires businesses with 50 or more employees to offer healthcare coverage or be penalized with additional tax sanctions.
Rep. Roby has long been a critic of Obamacare and has previously criticized the President’s decision to give business a delay in Obamacare tax penalties while leaving the individual mandate in place.
