Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Lehigh) is making national news this week as he seeks to make himself the face of moderate Republicans. He thinks the House of Representatives should abandon efforts to defund or delay Obamacare and pass a ‘clean’ continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown.
He’s been quoted by the New York Times and the Washington Post among other news outlets in the past few days.
“I’ve made it clear to them that it was time to bring it up, that a number of us want this brought up and it must happen,” Dent told the Allentown Morning Call. “There is no time for another volley. I’m not interested in backing another play, we’re past that now.”
The Senate voted Friday to strip the House-passed CR clean of it’s provisions for a defunded Affordable Care Act. In response, the House passed an updated CR containing a provision to delay Obamacare by one year. The Senate is expected to once again strip the bill clean Monday, which leads to the question of what the House will do after that happens.
President Obama has threatened a veto of any measure that tinkers with his signature healthcare law and has refused to negotiate with Republicans.
Dent seems to think that members of his party would be willing to vote to pass a stripped CR from the Senate, after failing to defund or delay Obamacare twice.
“A shutdown would be completely unnecessary and reckless,” Dent said. “We’ve been talking among ourselves, I know the votes are there to pass a clean continuing resolution.”
His calls aside, Dent has voted in lockstep with party leadership thus far. He voted to pass the delay of the Affordable Care Act with their bill Friday.
“I oppose shutting down the government,” Dent said in a statement then. “I am also deeply concerned about the impending implementation of the Health Care Law – Obamacare – with exchange enrollment beginning on Tuesday. The House recently attempted to defund Obamacare. While I oppose the Health Care Law, I had concerns about the defunding tactic, but wanted to get a government funding bill (Continuing Resolution) to the Senate for action. The Senate then acted, as was expected, and voted to strike the defunding provision.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Dent said that he believed if House Speaker John Boehner allows a vote on the Senate’s latest CR, due sometime after 2 p.m. today, that House Republicans would join with Democrats to pass the resolution and keep the government funded.
“I believe most House Republican members would be okay with John Boehner if he were to decide to allow a vote,” Dent said. “It would pass with a strong bipartisan vote.”
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9 Responses
Get to know the Congressman and you will understand he defines the role of government differently than you might. Remember he believes government exists to “serve the public” first and after that “protect our natural rights”. This means government is a source of essential service that must not be compromised to protect citizen rights. This makes it easy to oppose Obamacare but still vote to fund the government, including Obamacare.
Mr. Guzzardi – for all of your education, I’d expect you to know the definitions of socialism and nationalization. The idea that regulation is either is absurd: how many hospitals, health insurance companies, doctors offices, and medical device manufacturers has the government taken ownership of as a result of this legislation? Zero. You strike me as an intelligent human being (your thoughts on supply-side economics aside) and this leads me to one conclusion – that we need to call your talking points what they are: deliberate hyperbole, scare tactics, and lies.
The ACA is founded on 25-year-old Republican ideas from the conservative Heritage Foundation; ideas that Republicans were espousing as recently as 2008 as a good conservative, market-based solution until the current president got in office and started promoting them. Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican.
I don’t understand why we can’t reasonably disagree on philosophy without distorting reality. Even Ann Coulter was able to praise the basic soundness of RomneyCare and Obamacare as conservative, market-based ideas, while retaining her philosophical difference on their implementation, preferring it on a state, rather than federal, level. If I found myself further to one side than someone like Ann Coulter, I might give pause.
Obamacare nationalizes and socializes 1/6th of the economy.
Actually Obamacare isn’t a communist ploy because…oh Joe you know what I give up. You’re just too smart for us. We actually thought we could out think you You got us. All of us. You absolutely right we are all a bunch of freedom hating pinko commies.I can’t believe you finally pulled the veil away. I guess you win comrade.
If he votes like a Democrat and funds Obamacare, what are we to think?
Ah, Joe – you just made my case for me: bat-sh!t crazy, and will end up in the home for the Criminally Insane. Were you just fired as sheriff? Or are you just a typical Tea Party looney?
@Observer:
Take that hammer and sickle and ram it right up your ass. Soviet Scum like yourself are really irritating.
This is what the face of “reasonable” looks like in today’s insane Republican Party: voting in lockstep with the Teabagger strategy. He’s not sane, he’s just less crazy than the Metcalfes and Michelle Bachmanns of the world.
Good call Charlie. Let this country become the new Soviet Union. Implement Obamacare, allow 30 million illegals to flood the country, sack the healthcare system even further, and just allow Mao Zedong in the whitehouse to run buck-wild over our bill of rights. I am tired of these putrid republicans playing patty-cake with the Stalin-worshiping democrats. With the IRS and NSA profiling people based upon political affiliations, HHs will gladly see to it that anyone who opposes Comrade ObaMAO will be denied healthcare. This tactic of purging political dissidents is what allowed the Soviets and Communist Chinese to murder over 120 million people. No matter how much you appease a communist dictator, he shall still deny you healthcare as well, Charlie.