GOP Eyes a New Fiscal Prize With Health-Law Push - Shift in Focus From Previous Goal of Extracting Spending Cuts Worries Some Deficit Hawks

From The Wall Street Journal:

In this fall's fiscal showdowns, the long-held Republican goal of extracting spending cuts and other deficit-reduction measures has been eclipsed by the party's drive to stop the federal health-care law.

The result has been to inject more volatility and uncertainty into debate on crucial measures to keep the government open and solvent. Amid the fireworks over the health law, some Republicans worry that any drive to address the long-term debt problem is suffering from neglect.

"We are losing the forest for the trees here—there is still $17 trillion in debt," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.). "Why aren't we addressing these issues?"

 

Even as near-term deficit projections have improved, some deficit hawks hope to refocus attention on the long-term debt problem as Congress turns to the next phase of fiscal debate—legislation to raise the federal debt limit, which the Treasury says must be done by Oct. 17.
 

But the drive to strip funding for the health law, a landmark of President Barack Obama's time in office, isn't going away. House Republicans this week are preparing legislation to extend borrowing authority for a year, linking it to a one-year health-law delay and other GOP policy goals. Some Republicans also are seeking to tie funding of the government beyond Oct. 1 to an effort to dismantle the health law.
 

It is a strategic leap for Republicans, who for years have used fiscal deadlines to negotiate major debt-reduction measures. Now, they are using them to promote policy goals, like repealing the health-care law, that they have been unable to achieve otherwise.
 

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), who is assembling the debt-limit bill, said Republicans are bringing more issues to the table in part because, after the 2012 elections, they have to use what little leverage they have.
 

"The reason this debt limit fight is different is, we don't have an election around the corner where we feel we are going to win and fix it ourselves," Mr. Ryan said in an interview. "We are stuck with this government another three years."
 

Democrats say the GOP strategy is an increasingly brazen form of brinkmanship. "We shouldn't be playing political games with our debt, risking severe and fiscal economic consequences," said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D., Md.).
 

The emergence of the health law as Republicans' top target reflects the resurgence of tea-party-fueled activism. It also is a result of the growing difficulty of making more cuts to military and domestic programs. Even among House Republicans, leaders couldn't round up enough votes earlier this year to pass a bill cutting more from transportation and housing programs.
 

"There's only so much more spending reduction that could be done," Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R., S.C.) said in the spring.
 

The "Defund Obamacare" effort was launched in July after Mr. Obama delayed for a year a requirement of the law that large employers offer health insurance. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas drafted a letter calling for opposition to any government funding bill that included money for the health law. About a dozen other Republicans signed on. During the August congressional recess, Republicans at town-hall meetings faced questions from activists demanding they commit to strip funding from the law.
 

Some conservatives weighed a compromise that would delay parts of the law, such as a rule that individuals get coverage or pay a fine, while relaxing spending limits that Democrats oppose. "A little bit of additional deficit is nothing compared to delaying if not repealing Obamacare," said Rep. John Fleming (R., La.).
 

The House last week passed a bill to fund the government through Dec. 15 while cutting off health funding. The Senate is expected to restore the health money and return the bill to the House, where GOP lawmakers may tack on other measures to dial back the law.
 

David Simas, an Obama adviser, said postponing part of the law would be harmful. "A delay of the individual requirement results in fewer people having insurance, premiums increasing dramatically and basically destabilizing what happens" to people with pre-existing conditions, he said.
 

Mr. Ryan said he wasn't discouraged by the president's insistence he wouldn't negotiate over the debt-limit increase.
 

"Now, the president doesn't want to talk," said Mr. Ryan. "But he knows we are not going to walk away from this episode without getting a down payment on our fiscal and economic problems."