Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Thursday that Republicans decided against the idea of fighting ObamaCare in the context of the debt ceiling because ObamaCare is less “ripe” to fight now that it’s taken effect.
“Obamacare is in effect now,” she told the St. Cloud Times. “Sometimes a political fight is ripe, and sometimes it isn’t.
“And the Obamacare political fight isn’t ripe right now on the debt ceiling.”
{mosads}Last year, House Republicans offered several alternatives to undermine ObamaCare, include a one-year delay in the individual mandate, as part of a short-term bill to fund the federal government. Those GOP demands were rejected by the Senate, and the impasse forced the government to partially shut down for 16 days.
Bachmann, one of the most vocal opponents of ObamaCare in the House, said that fight made sense last year because ObamaCare was just about to take effect. But now, she said, the law has taken effect, which makes it harder to attack that way.
She said the 2013 vote was “our last chance before ObamaCare went into effect to be able to pull it back.”
But while Republicans may have abandoned the tactic of trying to moderate ObamaCare as part of big fiscal votes, they are still looking to modify the law. Just this week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the House would soon consider a bill to amend the law’s definition of full-time employee.
Republicans argue that the law’s view that 30 hours a week is full time is prompting companies to cut back hours, which means less work and less pay for millions of Americans.