Obama Blasts GOP Efforts To Defund Health Law
The president, Sunday on ABC's "This Week," says Republicans are trying to use the debt ceiling as a "lever to radically cut government."
Politico: President Obama: 'Less Concerned About Style Points'
About the looming debt and deficit issues in Congress, Obama blasted the ongoing Republican insistence that his signature health care law get defunded as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. "I think it's fair to say that never in history have we used just making sure that the U.S. government is paying its bills as a lever to radically cut government at the kind of scale that they’re talking about," Obama said. "It's never happened before. There've been negotiations around the corners, because nobody had ever presumed that you’d actually threaten the United States to default" (Tau, 9/15).
The Associated Press: Obama: Budget Tightening Could Widen Income Gap
Obama emphasized that when it comes to a crucial deadline to raise the nation's borrowing limit next month, he would not negotiate with Republicans. They want to use the debt ceiling as leverage to cut spending further and to delay Obama's signature health care law. ... Some conservative Republicans say they will only extend current spending levels or increase the debt ceiling if Obama delays putting in place his health care law, a condition Obama has flatly rejected (Kuhnhenn, 9/15).
Politico: Price, Van Hollen Spar Over Obamacare
Reps. Tom Price and Chris Van Hollen tore into each other on "Fox News Sunday" when asked whether stopping Obamacare implementation was worth shutting down the government. Price, a Republican from Georgia, when asked whether he supported a shutdown to stop the implementation of Obamacare, demurred twice, changing course from an earlier Fox interview in which he said that he would. Instead, he pointed to a proposal to delay the law’s implementation for a year. ... Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, jumped on the change. Citing the dozens of votes in the House to repeal the law, he accused Republicans of pitching the power back to insurance companies (Drusch, 9/15).
The Hill: GOP Keeps Focus On Obamacare Repeal
In their weekly radio address, the GOP trumpeted legislation, passed Thursday, that would eliminate the federal subsidies for low and middle-income Americans when they buy insurance plans – a central pillar of the Democrats' 2010 law. Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), the sponsor of the bill who delivered Saturday’s address, said her proposal is a common-sense solution to fighting fraud (Lillis, 9/14).
