Republican governors sounded the alarm this past weekend over threats by some members of their party to risk a government shutdown in a quixotic effort to defund Obamacare, The New York Times reported.
Attending the summer meeting of the National Governors Association in Milwaukee, a host of GOP state leaders said that, despite their own misgivings about the new federal health care law, the effort by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rand Paul (R-KY) could bring both economic and political risks.
“I have made the case that Obamacare is not good for the economy, but I have some real concerns about potentially doing something that would have a negative impact on the economy just for the short term — I think there are other ways to pursue this,” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said, according to the Times.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R), who blocked the health care law’s Medicaid expansion in his state, wondered how long his party will go to the mat to gut President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
“How much blood are we going to leave on the floor over this?” he said, according to the Times.
The call to defund Obamacare has created something of a schism on the right. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote last week that the effort by Lee, Rubio and Paul is “nuts.” Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) have also spoken out forcefully against the push.
Lee, meanwhile, has drawn a clear line in the sand, arguing that a vote to fund Obamacare is tantamount to an endorsement of the law. RedState.com editor Erick Erickson wrote last week that he’s disappointed that Coburn isn’t backing the defunders.
This post has been updated.
