After telling TPM this week that forcing a showdown over defunding Obamacare was futile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tweeted Friday that he supported the House-passed bill stripping funding from the health care reform law.
I support the House-passed bill to Defund Obamacare. #SenateMustAct
— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) September 20, 2013
That endorsement would appear to clash with Graham’s comments earlier in the week.
“I just think we know how this movie ends,” Graham told TPM Tuesday. “I don’t see us being able, in the Senate, to successfully carry the day. There are only 45 of us here. I don’t see the president, at the end of the day, agreeing to defund Obamacare. I just don’t see him agreeing to defund his signature issue. They had a campaign on it. I don’t think he’s going to say, ‘well, now, everything I said all those years — forget it, I’m willing to let it go.’ I just don’t see that being a good tactical choice.”
UPDATE: 3:55 p.m. EDT
A Senate GOP aide, who declined to speak publicly on his or his boss’s behalf, explained the apparent contradiction to TPM.
“You don’t get the situation we now find ourselves in. Senator Cruz and Senate Conservatives Fund now want to filibuster the House-passed bill,” the aide told TPM. “You can’t pass defund Obamacare legislation by filibustering defund Obamacare legislation.”
“I think every GOP member supports defunding Obamacare,” the aide said. “The question is on the procedure of how you’re going to do it.”
