[Update: Based on what I’m hearing from House sources, the worst suspicions are confirmed.  Eric Cantor is floating an idea to pass a short-term CR with a defund rider.  But just as we predicted, they plan to write a rule that will sever the defund rider from the body of the bill after it passes the House.  This will allow the Senate to vote down the defund part separately, and send a clean CR straight to the President’s desk without ever returning to the House.  This will ensure that we capitulate while allowing House and Senate Republicans to be shielded from charges of voting to defund Obamacare.  Here is the link from Politico.

This is exactly why we need new leadership in the party.  Call your members and make sure they are opposed to any trick that will allow the Senate to separate Obamacare funding from the rest of the bill.  If they support funding Obamacare in the budget, they should have the courage to do so through the front door.]

Washington is a strange place.  If you only spent your time inside the D.C. beltway you would come away with the impression that the most important policy issues are amnesty for illegals and air strikes for Al-Qaeda in Syria.  Yet in the real world, Americans are concerned about the lethargic economy and the destruction of the healthcare system at the hands of Obamacare.  Only in Washington can the focus be shifted to foreign interests just three weeks before implementation of the worst domestic program in American history.

On October 1, the Obamacare exchanges will officially open their doors, bringing us one step closer to the immutable dependency on government and the inexorable unsustainability of the private healthcare sector.  Employers are cutting health benefits, jobs – or both.  Healthy individuals who purchase their own health insurance will no longer be able to afford their own plan.  Doctors with decades of experience plan to retire due to the cumbersome mandates, restrictions, and paperwork.  Even many Democrats believe this plan is unworkable and are looking for leadership to stop this travesty from taking root.

Instead of spending all week debating Syria, House Republicans need to pass a CR defunding Obamacare.  No tricks; no gimmicks.  We don’t need two parallel versions of the CR – one defunding and one funding – only to be passed and severed upon its transition to the Senate.  We don’t need standalone bills like the No Subsidies Without Verification Act, H.R. 2775, which would require verification of eligibility before accessing the Obamacare health insurance subsidies.  These bills are vapid if there is no parallel commitment to defund Obamacare in a must-pass budget bill.

We are out of time, and it is time for leadership.  The public is strongly supportive of repealing Obamacare and overwhelmingly against the Syria escapade.  Why focus on Syria and give Obama a free pass on Obamacare?  The House should summarily vote down the Syria authorization and pass a CR defunding Obamacare this week.  Then they should spend the rest of the month fighting every aspect of Obamacare.

If we fail to refocus our attention, we will be stuck with Obamacare forever.  And all those Al-Qaeda refugees we let in from Syria will obtain free access to the exchanges.