Updated 11:20 a.m. ET
No one would mistake the Wall Street Journal for a liberal publication, so perhaps the hardcore conservatives within the GOP should listen up when Rupert Murdoch’s paper describes their latest plan as a “kamikaze mission.”
And now those hardcore conservatives have been joined by House leadership too. House Speaker John Boehner announced Wednesday morning that the House will vote this week to continue funding government operations only if Democrats agree to defund Obamacare in that plan.
The plan pushed by a few dozen Republicans would remove any funding for Obamacare from the continuing resolution needed to avoid a government shutdown. The WSJ editorial published Monday warns it’s a doomed political idea that will lead the public to blame Republicans for whatever ensuring shutdown may occur. It “could end up ensuring the return of all-Democratic rule.”
Rep. Mick Mulvaney is one of those Republicans supporting that plan and he joined Rev. Al Sharpton on PoliticsNation Tuesday to explain his support and why he believes it is “absolutely not,” a “kamikaze mission.”
“We are trying to have a discussion about Obamacare,” he said. “There’s very few people who are actually pursuing a government shutdown.”
When pressed on the issue, Mulvaney flipped the question around, arguing that it would actually be President Obama shutting down the government if he refused to sign a budget bill that defunded Obamacare.
“I think it’s a fair question to ask of us. I also think it’s a fair question to ask, Reverend, of the Senate and the president,” he said. “Would they shut the government down if we gave them enough funding for every part of the government but for Obamacare? If we passed a bill in the House that funded everything at agreed upon levels, levels we’ve agreed to, the Senate’s agreed to, the president’s agreed to, everything except the new health care law, would they shut the government down over that? If that’s the case, why?”
But as President Obama explained in his remarks Monday, the idea will face stiff opposition.
“Congress’s most fundamental job is passing a budget,” he said. “And Congress needs to get it done without triggering another crisis, without shutting down our government, or worse–threatening not to pay this country’s bills. After all the progress that we’ve made over these last four and a half years, the idea of reversing that progress because of an unwillingness to compromise or because of some ideological agenda is the height of irresponsibility.”
“I cannot remember a time when one faction of one party promises economic chaos if it can’t get 100% of what it wants,” he added. “That’s never happened before. But that’s what’s happening right now.”
NBC’s Katie Wall contributed to this report.
Morgan Whitaker