Marco Rubio's strategy for wooing Republicans: Say "Obamacare" and "defund" in the same sentence
Marco Rubio might be
scared to say the world "a"-word (abortion) in his quest to win back conservatives who are ticked off at his support for comprehensive immigration reform, but he's got
no qualms about using the "O"-word—Obamacare.
Sen. Marco Rubio pledged Thursday morning that he won’t vote for a short-term spending bill to keep the government open unless it defunds the Affordable Care Act.
“I will not vote for a continuing resolution unless it defunds Obamacare,” the Florida Republican said at a breakfast hosted by the Weekly Standard and Concerned Veterans for America. He called on his fellow senators to do the same. “I believe we should not vote or pass a continuing resolution unless that continuing resolution defunds Obamacare.”
I don't know whether the fact that Marco Rubio thinks this is a good political move says more about him or the conservatives to whom he panders, but it's really pathetic.
Obviously, part of what makes it pathetic is that even though we're now more than three years removed from the passage of Obamacare, Republicans are still talking about trying to sabotage it, even though they haven't been able to repeal it. And it's also pathetic that Rubio would threaten to shut down the entire government unless he gets his way.
But Rubio's threat is also pathetic because it's utterly meaningless. There's no chance House Republicans are going to make a spending bill contingent on defunding Obamacare, and Rubio knows it. And even if there were a chance, it's not like there's any possibility that the Senate will ever seriously consider a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare. Oh, and let's not forget that even if somehow Congress did pass such a resolution, it's not like President Obama would sign it.
To even make a threat this stupid, Rubio must think his base consists of a bunch of dumb rubes who will adore him simply for mentioning the words "Obamacare" and "defund" in the same sentence. And given that Politico wrote an entire article based on this meaningless threat, he's probably right.