Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is expected to announce Tuesday that she is joining the likes of Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) in the movement to defund Obamacare.
In a statement to be released by the Senate Conservatives Fund and obtained by the Washington Post, Palin will signal that she and her husband, Todd, are backing what Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have rightly branded a quixotic effort.
“This beast must be stopped — by not funding it. Today, Todd and I joined with many of our fellow citizens to urge those in the U.S. Senate to not fund Obamacare,” Palin will say in the statement, according to the Post.
The Senate Conservatives Fund, founded by former GOP Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), has recently gone after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) for resisting calls to block any continuing resolution if it provides funding for Obamacare and risk a government shutdown.
McConnell correctly pointed out earlier this month that a government shutdown will not halt the new federal health care law, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) stated simply that Republicans lack the votes to make the defunding dream a reality.
There’s also the glaring obstacle of persuading President Barack Obama to sign a bill that would effectively gut his signature legislative achievement. But conservatives like Cruz and DeMint, now the president of the Heritage Foundtation, have been undeterred by those factors.
DeMint said last week that it’s unclear if Obama would sign such a bill, while Cruz assured supporters that the defunding movement “is a fight we can win.”
Cruz and Paul are set to participate in a rally next month on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol to promote the defunding effort.
