Peter King: 25 Republicans May Vote Against Taking Up Spending Bill With Obamacare Provision

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Monday that he will buck his party leadership and vote against bringing up a government-funding bill that includes a one-year delay of Obamacare. And, he said, there may be as many as 25 other Republicans ready to do the same.

Nearly all Republican lawmakers flooding out of a closed-door meeting scoffed at the idea of passing a "clean" bill that simply funds the government ahead of Monday night's deadline. Most said the idea didn't even come up in the meeting as GOP leaders put forward their latest plan: to pass a bill that funds the government through mid-December but also delays by a year the individual mandate portion of the health care law. Their bill would also end federal health care subsidies for Hill staffers and lawmakers.

Democrats and President Barack Obama are insisting on a clean bill or no deal. King said that when he stood up in the meeting and urged his colleagues to vote for a clean funding bill, with no Obamacare provisions, it didn't go over well.

"Overwhelming silence," he told reporters.

But while most House Republicans aren't inclined to publicly admit they'd support a clean bill, King said as many as 25 of them may join him in voting against the rule to bring up the GOP bill at all. The reason, he said, is because they are worried about the political fallout from a government shutdown, and they don't want to be seen as having voted to cause it. If that block of Republicans holds, they, along with all the House Democrats opposed to bringing up the bill, could potentially sink it.

"They just feel it's a dead end," King said of those lawmakers, without naming names. "Shut down the government and then get blamed for it."

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Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/30/peter-king-government-shutdown_n_4018806.html