Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said Tuesday that he would vote for a continuing resolution to fund the government without any policy attachments, such as language defunding Obamacare.
Republicans initially coalesced around a conservative plan to defund Obamacare in late September, triggering the first government shutdown in 17 years. But faced with unified Democratic opposition to making any changes to President Barack Obama’s signature health law, Republicans have struggled in recent days to exact some policy victory they could sell to conservatives even as the shutdown fight bumped up along a deadline to raise the debt ceiling.
A new plan floated by Republicans over the weekend would raise the borrowing limit through Feb. 7 and fund the federal government through Dec. 15, but also rescind health insurance subsidies for members of Congress, the White House and their respective staff members. Issa sought to explain the new demand on CNN Tuesday.
“I’ll vote for a clean C.R.,” Issa said. “But let’s understand that the president wants and is happy, signed a bill that said members of Congress and their staff would, quote, be in Obamacare. He didn’t put himself into it. It’s time for him to be in that program along with the Vice President, all the thousands of political appointees.”
