Summary: Frequently Asked Questions about Defunding ObamaCare With limited-government champions like Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas and Congressmen Tom Graves of Georgia and Mark Meadows of North Carolina leading a charge to defund ObamaCare via the Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations bill, a lot of misleading information has been floating around about their effort. Both Democrats who still inexplicably support the law and Republicans who are afraid to take a stand against it have manufactured any number of talking points to excuse their unwillingness to stand against the faltering, unpopular Washington health care takeover. The following “Frequently Asked Questions” list aims to dispel as many of the myths about defunding ObamaCare as possible. Q: My Congressman says he cosponsored the defunding bill, why should he also sign the Lee/Meadows letter (which commits the signer not to vote for any bill that funds ObamaCare)?” A: Cosponsoring a bill that has no guarantee of ever receiving a vote isn’t sufficient. We must achieve our goal on a must-pass bill. That’s why Members of Congress need to insist on defunding via the Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations bill (also referred to as the Continuing Resolution or CR), which must be passed before October 1st in order for a significant portion of federal programs and agencies to continue to be funded. And that’s why we need them to sign the letter. Only by going on record and signing the letter can they signal that they are serious about stopping the Washington health care takeover. Note: The goal of the letter campaign is not to "shut down the government," as many ObamaCare supporters (and some fairweather opponents) claim. The goal is to use Congress's power of the purse to shut down ObamaCare -- and only ObamaCare.A "government shutdown" is in reality a “slowdown in nonessential government services." Services deemed essential, or which have separately appropriated funds available to support them, continue. That's why a temporary budget lapse is typically described as a "partial government shutdown." It's not the end of the world. Q: Since much of ObamaCare’s funding is on auto-pilot, will defunding it actually stop it from taking effect? A: As FreedomWorks has explained at length elsewhere, the Karl Rove / Mitch McConnell / Tom Coburn argument that “A shutdown won’t actually stop ObamaCare” is incorrect and misleading. While much of ObamaCare is indeed “permanent law,” i.e., on auto-pilot, and it's true that even after the defunding language actually becomes law and takes effect ObamaCare itself will remain on the books, the Congressional Research Service has confirmed that federal agencies like HHS and the IRS still require annually appropriated funds to be able to spend “permanent law” funds; therefore ObamaCare implementation would in fact halt during a budgetary impasse, and would of course be halted permanently once the defunding language is in effect. Incidentally, explicitly defunding all of ObamaCare through a new provision of permanent law would also stop the 41 new ObamaCare taxes from being collected, including those that have already taken effect.To be specific, defunders are insisting the CR include the language from the Cruz bill (S.1292) and its House companion, the Graves bill (H.R.2682), which ould bring ObamaCare implementation and enforcement to a complete and permanent halt. Incidentally, ObamaCare’s main auto-pilot spending -- the generous exchange premium subsidies and massive Medicaid expansion funding -- aren’t scheduled to begin until January 1, 2014. The CR fight will take place prior to that time, in September and October of 2013. So a budget standoff can result in defunding. Q: Since there aren't enough votes to repeal ObamaCare, what makes you think we can find the votes to defund or delay?A: It’s true that Democrats have been unwilling to vote for repeal. But in July, 22 House Democrats crossed party lines to support a one-year delay of the emp
