Charles Krauthammer Calls Effort To Defund Obamacare ‘Nuts’

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One of the most influential conservative commentators has rendered his judgment on the threats by some Republicans to shut down the government unless Obamacare is defunded: he thinks it’s “nuts.”

Charles Krauthammer wrote in a column published online Thursday in The Washington Post that the effort led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) — and backed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) — to oppose any budget or continuing resolution that funds the new federal health care law is a total non-starter.

This is nuts. The president will never sign a bill defunding the singular achievement of his presidency. Especially when he has control of the Senate. Especially when, though a narrow 51 percent majority of Americans disapproves of Obamacare, only 36 percent favors repeal. President Obama so knows he’ll win any shutdown showdown that he’s practically goading the Republicans into trying.

The debate over defunding Obamacare has create a schism in the GOP, with Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Bob Corker (R-TN) speaking out forcefully against the idea. Other conservative commentators see it differently than Krauthammer though. RedState.com editor Erick Erickson lamented in his column earlier this week that Coburn wasn’t joining Lee, Rubio, Paul and Cruz.

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