Blocking funds for Obamacare Implementation

According to Congressman Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, the House will next week vote on whether or not to block funding for implementation of Obamacare. This vote will be part of the debate on making immediate cuts in spending in order to reduce the deficit.

In a rather funny comment in the Reuters article on this story, the reporter solemnly announces that he doubts if the measure will get passed by the Senate which recently voted against repeal of Obamacare. It makes one wonder where news services like Reuters or the AP find the geniuses that they employ as reporters. The facts are that all funding for the federal government will run out on March 5th as a result of the previous Congress's failure to pass a budget and appropriations bills. The Democrats who controlled the last Congress left town with just a continuing resolution in place to fund the government until early March. That means that unless both the House and the Senate pass funding measures, the government will be unable to legally spend any money for any purpose. Putting this in words that even a reporter for Reuters could understand: Unless the House votes for money to fund the implementation of Obamacare, there cannot be any money spent for that purpose -- NO MATTER WHAT THE SENATE DOES.

Let's assume that the House passes a continuing resolution that authorizes spending at reduced levels for the entire government but specifically prohibits spending to implement Obamacare. does anyone really think that the Senate will shut down the entire federal government in order to avoid that hold on Obamacare? will the President shut down the government on this ground alone?

Let's make it even clearer: suppose the House passes a resolution for funding that recites that Obamacare has been held unconstitutional by Judge Vinson in Florida and then announces that in view of the ruling, it would not be prudent to implement the law until its constitutionality has been determined by the US Supreme Court. will the Democrats really shut down the government over that?

The clear reality is that this is a massive poker game. The Republicans have the election returns on their side. The Democrats can gamble and shut down the government, but it is the equivalent of their going all in. will they really bet the outcome of the 2012 election on that move when faced with the election results and the ruling holding obamacare unconstitutional. I think not.

this is going to be interesting to say the least.