Government Shutdown, The Fight To Defund Obamacare – Wingin’ It Wednesday

This week on "Wingin' It Wednesday", panelist Carol Ross, Mike Stagg, and Warren Caudle joined "Mornings with Ken and Bernie" to discuss the government shutdown and the fight to defund Obamacare.

Here's what the panel had to say:

1. Other than disrupting the lives of non-essential government employees do you think the current government shutdown will have any effect?  Such as defunding Obamacare?

Mike Stagg started us off:

No, it's not going to defund Obamacare. This is a rouse. These people who supposedly love their constitution are shutting down the government. These people somehow believe, and it's a minority of the house, it's a total of about 30 members in the house, they believe they can change the law of the land because they want to.
The only thing that's going to come of this is I believe we'll see Nancy Pelosi elected Speaker of the House again in 2014. John Boehner has been defanged because he no longer can control his caucus. He's at the mercy of his caucus.

Carol Ross added:

Let's just call this what it is, sequester 2.0. They said the sky was falling last time there were minuscule cuts in government funding.
Who is really stonewalling here? Who said he would not negotiate? That was President Obama who said he would not negotiate.
This vote was forced through at midnight with no input from the other party; forced through without a single Republican vote. It was sold by the Obama Administration as a mandate then turned around and ended up being a tax. We're supposed to respect that political maneuvering? No.

Warren Caudle Concluded:

I was at Barnes and Nobel last night and I looked at a book, I didn't open it up, but I just looked at the title, and it was the best title I've ever seen, it said, "The Party Is Over, How the Republicans Went Crazy, the Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class got Shafted."
When you look at this charade going on with the American people, they're going in and picking out soundbites and making it seem like the whole world hinges on this one issue. They're doing the same thing to the American people and they have been for 40 years. My point is that you've got this law, some people say it's a stupid law, some people say it's not. Let's either go in there and fix it or let's just do away with the whole thing and start all over. We've got problems with healthcare delivery in they country that most all experts say need to be changed.
It was said one time that we used to celebrate people for things they've done in the country. Now we celebrate people for things they stop. All these politicians are fighting against somebody who says they're going to do something.

2. Senator David Vitter has introduced an amendment that does way with the Congressional exemption from Obamacare do you think the amendment stands a chance?

Carol stated:

How many versions of the bill have been sent over from the House to the Senate? There are so many i'm getting whiplash trying to figure it out. The latest one they've sent back, Vitter has asked that they attach his amendment to it. Now they want out because it's going to cost them more money.Senator Vitter is trying to rectify this by attaching his bill. The Senate Democrats would rather shut down government than give up their very special exemption. Nothing infuriates us more than to see this kind of special treatment. If anyone wants to do a class action suit because of the lack of equal protection under the law.

Warren added:

Carol says this is mind-boggling, one amendment after another, and I absolutely agree. The problem is they are so focused on the nitpicking that they're totally oblivious to the real problems we have in this country. The accumulated total debt that we have is somewhere between $75-100 trillion dollars, and in a few years it's going to be twice that much.
My point is that we're sitting here and it's much to do about nothing.

Mike stated:

There are no exemptions in the Affordable Care Act, they've asked and been rejected. Vitter's bill is opposed by members in the Republican caucus in the House. Vitter is grandstanding here as he's done all along. This is about trying to score points. What we have here is a minority in the House of Representatives that are opposed to people getting affordable health insurance

The idea that somehow allowing people to take part in the insurance market is un-American or goes against something in the constitution is just ludicrous on its face. The fight is about trying to get somebody's name off the bill.

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Now it’s your turn to tell us what you think about today’s Wingin’ It Wednesday topics. Who got it right, who got it wrong, and who was way off? Let us know in the comment section.