New Budget chairman is big ObamaCare foe

The Senate’s new budget leader has a record of aggressively seeking to defund ObamaCare, an ominous sign for the president’s healthcare law under a GOP-controlled chamber.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) became the first in line to lead the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday after ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) dropped out of the running.

Enzi’s rise to the top will likely force President Obama onto defense again over his signature healthcare law.

{mosads}The Wyoming senator, along with Sens. Mike Lee, (R-Utah), Ted Cruz, (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have pushed to erase funding for ObamaCare since the law’s inception.

Together, they have worked on 17 bills to “repeal, defund, and dismantle Obamacare piece-by-piece,” according to a statement from Enzi’s office.

“Enzi has been part of the defunding effort from the start,” the senator’s office wrote last fall. “He opposed the law at its creation, voting against it in two committees and again on the Senate floor.”

The senators helped cause a government shutdown last year when they refused to support a continuing resolution that funded “further implementation or enforcement of Obamacare,” Enzi’s office wrote.

Enzi, who is also the former chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has a long history in healthcare reform.

During the 2009 debate over healthcare, Enzi was a key player in the Senate Finance Committee’s “Gang of Six,” which tried but largely failed to find compromises on the president’s bill.