Where are the GOP Honey Badgers?
The national fight over the looming implementation of Obamacare has been headquartered right here in North Carolina over the past two days. Indeed, longer than that, as nearly three weeks ago freshman Congressman Mark Meadows of NC’s 11th District began circulating Utah Senator Mike Lee’s letter calling for a defunding effort that would be tied to any budget continuation.
The discussion has exploded since Tuesday when Mecklenburg’s own Chuck Suter of ConstitutionalWar.org released a now viral video from a Monday evening townhall forum at Queens University in Charlotte that pinned down 9th district Congressman Robert Pittenger into admitting he will not support Lee and Meadows efforts to defund.
Damage control was immediately begun by Pittenger and staff, realizing that the hornet’s nest had just been swatted. By early afternoon on Tuesday, this infographic was being circulated on local Republican Facebook groups, in a sense drawing attention to the controversy.
Pittenger Infographic. Click for full size.
The infographic was followed by this link to Rep. Pittenger being interviewed on the Mike Huckabee radio show.
In both of these instances, Pittenger’s response meme is to paint himself as “responsibly opposed to Obamacare”. He outlines the multitude of bills he has co-sponsored or voted for that would weaken the President’s signature program.
I will give the man an approving nod for those attempts.
However, here is an on the fly definition of what we in politics refer to as “spin”: The fine line between what a politician tells you and the full story.
The truth of the matter is that leverage is important when you are in overall minority status. Passing all the bills in the world is meaningless if the other side of the debate can avoid having to deal with your objections.
To wit…
House: “We vote to defund Obamacare!”
Senate: “Ain’t that cute. We don’t.”
Fade to black.
This is what makes this particular debate so important. Those who desire to save the country from Obamacare by any means necessary recognize a couple of things and are willing to leverage this strength into actually accomplishing something.
First, the individual mandate takes effect in October! That’s right. This thing is here, now. That zombie you thought you could outrun is right in front of you. It’s happening. The time for “responsibly defunding” is over. This is DEFCON 1 and it’s time to take this matter seriously.
Second, the American people are behind them. Fear tactics about future elections if a government shutdown is allowed fall on deaf ears when as much as 77% of the public opposes the individual mandate. Republicans who play their cards right, stick together, and stick up for principle have a lot to gain in terms of goodwill from the public.
If Congressman Pittenger would spend as much time educating people about the President and Senate’s desire to shut down the government in order to save the unpopular Obamacare as he has in trying to convince his own Party that now is not the time to fight, we’d be well on our way to successfully utilizing the leverage that attaching defunding to the continuing resolution brings.
The desire to not fight based on an assumption that Republicans will be blamed for a shutdown when it will in fact be the Democrats who do so is a cop-out. In fact, after the 1995 shutdown, the GOP did get blamed. They then picked up two Senate seats in the 1996 election. So much for negative ramifications.
Pittenger, in his Huckabee interview, kept insinuating that part of the danger of a shutdown would be that the military would lose their paychecks. This is disingenuous and exactly the type of fear mongering I would expect from Democrats over social security reform.
The truth of the matter is, according to MilitaryAdvantage.com, “if the past is any indication, active duty service members are not likely to miss any paychecks.” In fact, military pay was specifically exempted from the ten shutdowns that occurred between 1980 and 1996.
Ultimately, any Congressman not willing to stand up for the people against Obamacare has no reason to keep their job. Pointless resolutions mean nothing and are just excuses to look good and keep those donations pouring in.
We have some leverage with the continuing resolution. Failure to use that leverage gives the Democrats exactly what they want…a population dependent on government for healthcare. This is our last chance to stop it. Once implemented, starting in October, Obamacare like Social Security and Medicare isn’t going to be “defunded responsibly”.
Ronald Reagan said it best during a 1975 speech to the Young Americans for Freedom.
“There are some that say we should form a new third party. May I suggest an alternative to that. Let’s have a new first party. A Republican Party raising a banner of bold colors, no pale pastels. A banner instantly recognizable as standing for certain values which will not be compromised. Yes, we must broaden our base, but let’s broaden it the way we did in 1972. Because those Americans…Democrats and Independents and Republicans are still out there looking for a banner around which to rally. And we have what they want. What they’re seeking. But they don’t know that. And sometimes I wonder if we know it.”
I’m looking for representation that consistently stands up for principle and isn’t frightened into obsolescence by the media and by the power brokers within the GOP looking for that next big check.
Indeed, I’m looking for some Republican honey badgers.
Yep, a two year old viral YouTube video showcases a very valuable lesson.
Below is the clip, if you are opposed to strong language, do not watch.
If the media spin is your concern, grow a pair. Be a GOP honey badger. Be strong, educate the public, trust your grassroots, empower your social media, and above all…”don’t give a S*%&”!!!
Great article Christian. I hope to make it to one of Rep. Pittenger’s town hall meetings. I hope we grill him sufficiently enough to possibly change his vote.
Hey Kim, Thanks!
We really miss you and Jim at CAUTION!
Unless you can outbid the healthcare cartel…good luck changing his vote. You’d to better to change YOURS.
Pittenger Care is bad for NC.
The Tea Party has to brand its property for loyalty. Y’all go ahead and Primary Pittenger, you’ll lose the 9th.
Let us not forget Rep. Pittenger also voted to keep funding the carte blanche spying on American citizens in violation of our 4th Amendment rights.
I will not forget. I am a REAL elephant ;).
remember indeed,this pittenger is just another anti-liberty statist who voted for this outrage;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-broke-privacy-rules-thousands-of-times-per-year-audit-finds/2013/08/15/3310e554-05ca-11e3-a07f-49ddc7417125_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboPN_p
Pittenger is on the rag because Rupert took away his Fox franchise at Ch. 18
It is fun to watch an extreme conservative being pilloried by the lunatic conservatives. Someone please pass the popcorn.
“77% of the public opposes the individual mandate.”
Did you read the article? 49 percent want to kill the individual mandate. The rest of the 77 percent want to DELAY it.
And is it any wonder? The propaganda campaign waged by the wacko right has worked–at least for the short run. Wait until health care costs level off or drop. Then show me your poll results.
Obamacare is here to stay, folks. Get over it. In fact, instead of acting like cry babies, why not actually try to make the bill work. After all, the mandate is based on CONSERVATIVE ideas.
Terrence, it is mathematically impossible for the bill to work.
No its not impossible if they ration the care which they will. The rationing will favor the younger voters who pay for it. If you’re 85 and need a knee replacement or heart valve surgery you better be a member of congress or on their staff.
Actually they will change the rules to keep the least people unhappy. Also, as the population ages, which is happening in the US and Europe, it is natural for this type legislation to be enacted. It favors the old at the expense of the young because the old have more political clout. That is also the reason for some of the regulations and laws whose intent is to maintain the economy as it is instead of a true capitalistic economy of “creative destruction”, wherein the old, staid companies give way to young vibrant upstarts. The old use their political clout to have government write laws maintaining their position. See Social Security, Medicare, ObamaCare, crony capitalism, etc. In every case the young are paying the old. Why else have the young purchase insurance at the same rates as the old, except to subsidize the old?
Don’t have relatives in Europe do we? The older you get the longer you have to wait for or the more likely it is you won’t get expensive treatment.
The math doesn’t work? Have you seen the trend in health care costs? That’s the math that doesn’t work. Obama had the guts to pass a bill that addresses our out-of-control health care costs. What did the GOP have to offer?
And please do tell how the math of ObamaCare doesn’t work.
Obamacare will work fine in enriching the insurance companies that wrote it.