Health Care Showdown--Obama To Ignore Judge, House to Begin De-funding Obamacare

It looks as if a showdown on Obamcare is coming sooner rather than later. Yesterday, outgoing Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the government would be going ahead with implementing Obamacare despite the Florida Judge's expectation that implementation would stop based on his ruling. Today it was announced that the House would start its work on de-funding of Obamacare next week.

In his ruling last week, Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida wrote that in his opinion an injunction is an extraordinary measure, particularly when a ruling is against the federal government. “It is even more so when the party to be enjoined is the federal government, for there is a long-standing presumption ‘that officials of the Executive Branch will adhere to the law as declared by the court. As a result, the declaratory judgment is the functional equivalent of an injunction.

According to Robert Gibbs the president will ignore the order:



By the way the Gibbs/White House contention about the 12 times the case was dismissed is misleading. The White House is correct they were dismissed, but it had nothing to do with the merits of the case they were dismissed because the judges concluded the plaintiffs either lacked proper standing or jurisdiction to bring the lawsuit.

In the four cases where an Obamacare trial was argued on its merits 2 ruled in favor of the law and 2 against, but the Florida case was the only one where the Judge ruled that the Government should treat his ruling as an injunction. The answer to whether or not the POTUS should have listened to the Florida Judge will probably remain unresolved until the case is heard by the Supreme Court.

The showdown in congress is likely to come to a head earlier as next week the House of Representatives will begin its work to de-fund the Obamacare bill.

The House of Representatives is likely to vote to block funding for President Barack Obama's signature healthcare overhaul when it takes up a budget plan next week, House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on Tuesday.

"I expect to see one way or other the product coming out of the House to speak to that and to preclude any funding to be used for that," Cantor said at a news conference, referring to an effort to block implementation of the health-care law.

House Republicans aim to pass a spending measure next week that would immediately cut at least $32 billion from the government's $3.7 trillion budget in an effort to trim budget deficits that could hit an estimated $1.5 trillion this year.

Details of the Republican spending-cut package will be made public on Thursday ahead of a wide-ranging debate on the House floor next week.

Cantor's office said the language blocking funding for the healthcare law is expected to be offered as an amendment during the House debate next week. Republicans, trying to make good on a campaign pledge for a more open legislative process, plan to debate a number of amendments to the spending bill.

Cantor said he expects the spending bill to include healthcare language when it leaves the House for Senate consideration.

The measure is not likely to get past the Democratic-controlled Senate, which rejected a Republican bid to fully repeal the healthcare overhaul that Obama signed into law last year.er

The question is will the Republicans stick to their guns even if it means a government shutdown? Or will they fold.  In this battle the will of the people is on their side.