Over the past month, several prominent conservative Republican senators have been promoting the idea of using the threat of a government shutdown to force some form of the repeal of President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care legislation, better known as ObamaCare.
Sens. Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have all given varying approaches, but they all agree that the power of the purse held by the Republican-controlled U.S. House should be used as leverage to defund the unpopular law.
However, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, hasn’t been quick to jump on that bandwagon.
Sessions was a guest on WYDE in Birmingham, Ala. on Tuesday’s broadcast of Michael Hart’s radio show with fill-in host and Yellowhammer editor Cliff Sims.
Sessions expressed his admiration for one of the senators leading the charge, Utah Republican Mike Lee, and said he shares Lee’s disdain for ObamaCare. However, Sessions said he sees issues with the plan being advanced by Lee and some of his other senate colleagues.
“I think the thing that is most advantageous for Mike Lee, who is a great new senator and he’s really courageous, gutsy and — I think there is no real alternative strategy that’s been put forward,” Sessions said. “But the plan is developing more and more problems.”
So while Republicans have maintained a united front in calling for ObamaCare’s repeal, they are fractured when it comes to their tactical strategy to actually roll back the law.
“It’s purely a matter of what is the best tactical way to take this bill apart and undo it. It is terrible for America. We are not able to run the health care system in America and we shouldn’t attempt to do so and it’s going to be one more surging expenditure that we can’t afford. It is going to reduce the quality of health care, I have no doubt about that.”
Sessions, who holds a 95 (out of 100) lifetime conservative rating according to the American Conservative Union, said he wasn’t sure a government shutdown was justified as a way of undermining ObamaCare. He indicated he would not likely be supporting the continuing resolution to fund the government regardless of whether or not it continued to fund ObamaCare.
“So how do we go about undoing it? I don’t know,” he said. “I expect I will not vote for the continuing resolution but the problem is that this is a clear government shutdown deal. There’s not the votes sufficient today to repeal ObamaCare. So the president will not sign any bill that undermines his law and the Democratic Senate is not going to pass it either. So it’s just a guaranteed government shutdown, which is something we shouldn’t lightly walk into. So that’s what people are wrestling with. I think about 13 Republican senators have joined in explicitly saying they will never vote for anything that provides for the continuation of ObamaCare. And others have spoken out and said that’s a policy that won’t work and could be counterproductive.”
Sessions cited Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who has also questioned the tactic in his regular appearance on Fox News Channel’s evening news program, “Special Report.”
“If it would work — so the concern is, will it work,” he added. “If it doesn’t work and it places the country at risk, that’s not a good choice. Charles Krauthammer, you know, just hammered it and said it’s not going to work, it will be a disaster and Obama would love for us to do this. But other people have different views. So, I think a lot of us are wrestling with what the right tactic is at this point in time to try and undo this legislation.”
Follow Jeff on Twitter @Jeff_Poor
