86 Tea Party Drunks From Our Government

A Tea Party drunk and his father talked my daughter, Heather Hanson, into calling me a “parasite” because I am on SSI. Bill Cornwell and his father are Toilet Paper Drunks who can’t stop their wining. They took my daughter and grandson hostage because they are sore losers. Their ilk is threatening to take our Democracy hostage, unless they get their way.

Jon Presco

WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), under pressure from conservatives, said Wednesday that the House would vote on legislation that would link essential funding to keep the government open this fall with a cut-off of funding for the president’s signature health-care law.

Republican leaders also said that the House, as early as next week, would pass a needed increase in the federal debt limit that would be linked to a delay in the health-care law, known as Obamacare, and other conservative priorities including an opening gambit on overhauling the tax code.

House GOP leaders acknowledged that it is unlikely their measures will sail through the Democratic-controlled Senate. It is likely that anti-Obamacare provisions will be stripped out and the short-term funding measure would be sent back to the House.

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The GOP decision makes it harder to predict how Congress will come to an agreement on a bill to finance the government after Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins, and avoid a government shutdown.

The two-track plan marks a shift from an early Republican strategy designed to have a less-contentious path to passing an extension of government funding. But a significant faction of conservatives on and off Capitol Hill objected and demanded a fight over funding the health-care law as part of the deal to keep the government operating.

“We’re going to continue to do everything we can to repeal the president’s failed Obamacare” law, said Mr. Boehner.

In remarks to a closed-door meeting of House Republicans before he spoke to reporters, Mr. Boehner said his strategy shift was designed to unify the GOP and design legislation that can secure 218 Republican votes, a majority of the House.

“On every major issue we’ve faced for the past two and a half years, the math has been the same: House Republicans either find a way together to get to 218, or the Democrats who run the rest of Washington essentially get everything they want,” he said, according to a person in the room. “On [the government funding bill] we know what the position of this conference is. Every member in this room is for defunding Obamacare while letting the rest of the government continue to operate.”

Mr. Boehner made it clear he intends to put the onus on Senate Republicans, including tea-party allies like Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) who have bluntly criticized Republican leaders’ earlier plan to pass a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown without an anti-Obamacare provision.

“We’re going to put Obamacare defunding directly into the [government funding bill],” Mr. Boehner told House Republicans. “And then we’re going to send it over to the Senate, so our conservative allies over there can continue the fight. That’s where the fight is.”

The short-term spending measure is expected to extend government funding at the current spending level, an annual rate of around $986 billion, until Dec. 15. The House will likely vote on the measure, known as a continuing resolution, on Friday, according to a senior House GOP aide.

The debt-limit plan is expected to extend government borrowing authority for one year and delay implementation of the president’s health-care law for the same amount of time, according to aides. That plan would also include measures to expedite construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, create instructions for overhauling the tax system and other changes to government spending programs for which Republicans have previously pushed, aides said.

Rep. Trent Franks (R., Ariz.) said he was “very open” to the new spending plan, but acknowledged that dealing with the measure when it comes back from the Senate will be tricky.

“The Senate will do everything they can to demagogue it and they’re in a position to do that,” he said. “So it will be a challenge.”