WASHINGTON - Republicans are trying hard to recruit some Democratic senators such as Louisiana's Mary Landrieu to support their efforts to defund ObamaCare. So far, the efforts have gone nowhere. "I just think we need to keep the government operating," Landrieu said Friday. "It will be very damaging to the economy, to jobs in Louisiana, should the Tea Party...
WASHINGTON - Republicans are trying hard to recruit some Democratic senators such as Louisiana's Mary Landrieu to support their efforts to defund ObamaCare. So far, the efforts have gone nowhere.
"I just think we need to keep the government operating," Landrieu said Friday. "It will be very damaging to the economy, to jobs in Louisiana, should the Tea Party push us off the cliff because of their relentless, senseless and reckless push to repeal a law that has been passed, and held up by the Supreme Court, and is being implemented in majority states in America."
Landrieu spokesman Matthew Lehner said Monday that her position is unchanged after several GOP senators used the Sunday talk shows to pressure Senate Democrats to provide the votes they need to get the Senate to approve a House-passed spending bill barring funding for ObamaCare.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., one of the senators pressing the defund issue, mentioned Landrieu by name during an appearance Sunday on Fox News Sunday.
"If we take this to the American people, I believe the next step after that is starting to get red state Democrats," Cruz said. "If you're a Mark Pryor, if you're a Mary Landrieu, running for reelection in Arkansas and Louisiana, and you start to get 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 calls from your constituents, suddenly, it changes the calculus entirely."
Cruz was criticized by some House conservatives last week after saying there weren't the votes in the Senate to pass the House-approved spending plan that bars funding for the Affordable Care Act. Since then, he's been threatening filibusters and other procedural efforts to block the Senate from stripping the ObamaCare defunding language from the spending bill.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., another leader of the Senate's freshman conservative caucus, conceded the Senate's 46 Republicans can't force the 100-member Senate to repeal ObamaCare. He, too, mentioned Senate Democrats up for re-election in conservative states.
"I hope that a few Senate Democrats, particularly those from red states who are up for reelection this year will consider joining us," Lee said.
But at this point, it's not certain that Cruz and Lee, leaders, along with David Vitter, R-La, of the GOP Senate effort to defund ObamaCare, even have unanimous Republican support.
On Sunday, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said he agrees with GOP critics of the Affordable Care Act, but suggested the GOP can't achieve that goal - what with Democrats controlling the Senate and President Barack Obama promising to veto any spending plan that cuts off funding for his signature health law.
"I agree with them that, if we could do this, we should do it, but we can'," said Coburn said. "And the political reality -- you know, tactics and strategies ought to be based on what the real world is, and we do not have the political power to do this. And so we're not -- we are not about to shut the government down over the fact that we cannot, only controlling one House of Congress, tell the president that we're not going to fund any portion of this, because we can't do that."
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., made the same point this morning on MSNBC, saying Republicans don't want to be blamed for a government shutdown Oct 1, which will occur if the House-Senate and the president can't agree on a temporary bill to fund the government from Oct. 1 to Dec. 15.
On Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., was the first Republican to talk about a strategy of trying to draw support from Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2014. He was quickly rebuffed by Landrieu and Sen. Mark Pryor, R-Ark., who is considered more vulnerable than Landrieu in the 2014 election.
Said Pryor: "Next week, when the real work begins in the Senate, I will work in a constructive way to keep the government open and keep our economy growing," Pryor said.
Landrieu has had previous runs in with Cantor. In 2011, she criticized what she referred to as the Cantor Doctrine - when emergency funding is needed to respond to hurricanes and other diasters the Congress should approve needed funding only after cutting an equivalent amount from other programs. Landrieu said the Cantor Doctrine would delay responses to major disasters as Congress argued where to cut the funds necessary to offset the costs.