Obamacare Delay Bill Passed, Government Shutdown 2013 Date Almost Certain
An Obamacare delay bill has passed the House of Representatives despite the looming government shutdown date of October 1.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Obamacare fines are required for those ignoring the Affordable Care Act, which has proven to be quite unpopular with many Americans.
The government shutdown 2013 fight is focused on Obamacare. Obamacare’s price increased dramatically from the original estimated budget of $850 billion over 10 years, rising to almost $2 trillion based upon the latest CBO projections. But most of the spending by the Affordable Care Act occurs in the last six years, while taxes are collected for all 10 years. This means the per-year cost of Obamacare is $333 billion, which means the cost of the Affordable Care Act will account for 9.5 percent of the $3.5 trillion of annual Federal spending (which keeps going up).
The Obamacare delay bill offered to delay the government shutdown until December 15, 2013 by raising the debt ceiling slightly. The bill would have seen Obamacare delayed for another year and repealed the Affordable Care Act’s medical device tax completely. But if the 2013 government shutdown does occur then Obamacare wouldn’t be effected since the IRS and state governments are primarily responsible for implementing the Affordable Care Act.
Republicans say that “Obamacare is not ready for prime time” and that delaying Obamacare is essential to tackling the debt ceiling:
“The president is now demanding that we increase the debt limit without engaging in any kind of bipartisan discussions about addressing our spending problem. By an overwhelming margin, Americans believe the debt-ceiling increase should be coupled with solutions that help solve our debt and grown our economy. … Coupling an increase in the debt limit with efforts to rein in spending makes common sense, so much so that it’s been used from presidents from both parties.”
But Democrats claim any attempt to see Obamacare delayed are “futile games.” Some Democrats even compared the Republicans to terrorists for trying to defund Obamacare.
The Senate has already announced they’ll reject the House’s Obamacare delay bill. Even if the bill did manage to pass the Senate President Obama says he’ll veto it anyway. The Senate version of a government shutdown bill stripped all mention of Obamacare funding but only increased the time to reach a long term solution until November 15. Considering that the House and Senate only have a day and a half to come to an agreement the 2013 government shutdown seems almost certain at this point.
