Group urges government shutdown to stop healthcare law

Republicans should shut down the government if necessary in order to defund the healthcare reform law, a major opponent of the overhaul urged lawmakers on Friday.

With a showdown looming over the spending bill to keep the government running past March 4, some Republicans are wary of allowing the government to shut down over their desire to defund healthcare reform. But the DefundIt.org memo sent to members of Congress opposing the law said they should stand their ground, arguing that they wouldn’t take the blame for the shutdown.

“Senate Democrats would be the ones shutting down the government,” the memo said. “House Republicans can give them all the appropriations they need to run federal operations, besides that for ObamaCare.”

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has promised that the House would hold a vote to defund healthcare reform next week. The measure will undoubtedly pass the Republican-dominated House, but Senate Democrats and President Obama are unlikely to pass any spending measure that takes away funding for healthcare reform.

The prospect of a government shutdown has haunted Republicans' call for defunding the reform law. The government shutdown in 1995 was largely seen as a win for President Clinton as he battled Republicans in Congress.

Acknowledging this fear, the DefundIt letter said Republicans can’t afford to let the law be implemented.

“The longer term damage of ObamaCare outweighs the short term costs of a shutdown,” the letter said.

The DefundIt letter includes a number of targets for defunding, including the Preventive Services Task Force, the Office of Minority Health, the liability reform demonstration program, young women’s breast cancer awareness, the creation of a Prevention and Public Health Fund and grants for states to build new health insurance exchanges.