Rep. Pete King (R-NY) told National Review Online that moderate Republicans would revolt against House leadership’s latest ploy to derail Obamacare in exchange for funding the government.
King said he had 25 House Republicans who would oppose the latest plan, which would delay Obamacare’s individual mandate for a year and eliminate subsidies for Congress members and staff. If that’s true and House Democrats united against the plan, it likely wouldn’t have the votes to pass.
“This is going nowhere,” he told NRO. “If Obamacare is as bad as we say it’s going to be, then we should pick up a lot of seats in the next election and we should win the presidency in 2016. This idea of going through the side door to take something you lost through the front door — to me it’s wrong.”
King acknowledged, though, that the verbal committment of those moderates to oppose the plan wasn’t a guarantee that they would actually vote against it when the House votes Monday evening.
“How many of them are going to follow up today with the pressure and everything else, I don’t know,” King said.
Another Moderate Republican, Rep. Charlie Dent (PA), told TPM he intends to vote against a rule that would bring up a new continuing resolution with new anti-Obamacare provisions on Monday evening. He supports passing a “clean” continuing resolution to continue funding the government at current levels.
House leadership could also lose some votes on the right. Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) told the Huffington Post that she would oppose the latest plan because it “doesn’t go far enough.”
