Some House GOP lawmakers take hard line position against health law funding in debt limit debate

As Republican leaders unveiled a plan to avert a government shutdown, they faced the challenge of building support for the proposal within their own ranks because it does not defund the health law. Some within the caucus reacted with skepticism. But, if enough support can be shored up, a vote could be scheduled as early as Thursday.

The Washington Post: House Republicans Battle Over Leaders' New Budget Bill
House Republican leaders unveiled a plan Tuesday to keep the government open past Sept. 30, but were scrambling to build support within their own ranks after conservatives savaged the proposal for failing to defund President Obama's health initiative. The plan, as presented to the party's rank and file in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning, calls for the government to be funded at current levels through Dec. 15, continuing the sharp budget cuts known as the sequester (Montgomery, 9/10).

The Wall Street Journal: House Conservatives Cool On GOP Spending Plan
A push by conservative House Republicans to cut funding for President Barack Obama's signature health-care law is complicating efforts to keeping the government running when the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. House GOP leaders on Tuesday proposed a plan to fund the government through mid-December while forcing the Senate to vote on cutting funds for the 2010 Affordable Care Act. But conservatives unhappy with the health-care law have reacted with skepticism, saying that while it may compel the Senate, controlled by Democrats, to vote on health-care cuts, it won't lead to the dismantling of the program (Boles, 9/10).

The New York Times: G.O.P. Eyes Hard Line Against Health Care Law
The House Republican leadership signaled Tuesday that Republicans would support an essential increase in the nation's debt limit in mid-October only if President Obama and Democrats agree to delay putting his health insurance program into full effect -; a demand that sets the stage for another economically risky confrontation (Calmes, 9/10).

Politico: Conservatives Upset By Defunding Ploy
House Republican leaders are performing some legislative gymnastics to placate conservatives demanding Obamacare defunding -; but they're getting pushback from conservative rank and file and advocacy groups against the short-term spending plan they hope to vote on later this week. Conservatives had already planned a back-to-Washington rally for Tuesday to build support for defunding Obamacare. Members of Congress didn't directly criticize the leadership plan from the podium, but afterward some called it a gimmick that leaves Obamacare unscathed just weeks before enrollment in the new health marketplaces begins (Cunningham, 9/11).

ABC News: House GOP Devises Ploy To Force Senate Vote To Defund Obamacare
House Republicans will attempt to use a vote this week on a stop-gap measure to fund the government to simultaneously compel the Senate to vote to defund the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare." While the Democratic-led Senate is unlikely to defund the health care law, Republicans appear keen on putting vulnerable senators on the record in support of the controversial health care overhaul. "Our goal here is not to shut down the government. Our goal is to cut spending and to stop Obamacare," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said during a news conference at the Capitol today (Parkinson, 9/10).

NBC News: House Preps Plan To Avert Shutdown, Force Senate Obamacare Vote
Aides say that GOP leaders are currently assessing Republican support for the plan. If leadership finds they have the support to pass the bill with just Republican votes, they could vote as early as Thursday. Government funding is currently scheduled to expire on September 30th if Congress fails to act (Thorp, 9/10).

NBC News: House GOP Pushes Defund Obamacare Bill; Conservative Group Calls It 'Smoke And Mirrors'
House Republican leadership aides say they are currently whipping a bill that would extend government funding until mid-December, averting a government shutdown, as well as force the Senate to vote on whether they support defunding the Affordable Care Act. ... If leadership finds they have the support to pass the bill with just Republican votes, they could vote as early as Thursday (Thorp, 9/10).

Fox News: House Leadership Pushes New Legislative Strategy To Defund Obamacare
House Republican leaders on Tuesday defended their proposal for a temporary spending bill that essentially puts the contentious issue of "defunding" ObamaCare in the hands of the Democrat-controlled Senate (Weber, 9/10).

Bloomberg: House Republicans Push For Senate Health Vote On Budget
House Republican leaders are lobbying their members to back a government financing strategy that would force the Senate to take a vote on defunding President Barack Obama's health-care law. House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor must persuade Republicans to vote for their plan to pair a short-term stopgap spending measure with a resolution to strip money for the health-care law. House Democrats plan to oppose the maneuver (Tiron and Rowley, 9/11).

But the defunding push doesn't see this as enough -

CNN: Obamacare Combatants Fight For Attention
It's been pushed off the radar the past couple of weeks by the 24/7 media coverage over whether Congress should authorize a military strike against Syria, but the bitter partisan battle over the new national health care law claws its way back into the spotlight on Tuesday. Proponents of the drive to defund the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, take to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol to hold an afternoon rally. A couple of hours earlier supporters of the law held their own gathering on Capitol Hill to push back against what they call Republican attempts to "sabotage" the health care law (Steinhauser and Walsh, 9/10).

The Hill: Tea Party Rejects GOP's Latest Strategy For Defunding ObamaCare
House GOP leadership's plan to appease conservatives on ObamaCare met with strong opposition from the Tea Party Tuesday, signaling a tough fight ahead as leaders work to pass a government funding bill this week. Powerful conservative groups FreedomWorks, Heritage Action and the Club for Growth announced that they will punish members in future elections if they support House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) gambit, which places the onus for defunding ObamaCare on the Democratically controlled Senate (Viebeck, 9/10).

Politico: Tea Party Not Sold On ACA Defunding Ploy
House Republican leaders are performing some legislative gymnastics to placate conservatives demanding Obamacare defunding -; but they're getting pushback from conservative rank and file and advocacy groups against the short-term spending plan they hope to vote on later this week. Conservatives had already planned a back-to-Washington rally for Tuesday to build support for defunding Obamacare. Members of Congress didn't directly criticize the leadership plan from the podium, but afterwards some called it a gimmick that leaves Obamacare unscathed just weeks before enrollment in the new health marketplaces begins (Cunningham, 9/10).

The reason action is necessary -

Los Angeles Times: U.S. Will Hit Debt Limit Between Oct. 18 and Nov. 1, Analysis Says
For example, if the Treasury hit its borrowing authority on Oct. 18, payments to Medicare and Medicaid providers due that day would be delayed one business day, to Oct. 21. But Social Security checks, veterans benefits and active-duty military pay due to be issued on Nov. 1 would not go out until Nov. 13. The government technically hit the debt limit in May. But the Treasury has been using what it calls "extraordinary measures" since then to juggle the nation's finances and continue paying its bills. Those measures included suspending investments in some federal pension funds and in a currency exchange rate fund (Puzzanghera, 9/10).

In other Capitol Hill news -

The Washington Post's The Fact Checker: The GOP Attack On A Dubious Obama Health Care Pledge
What happens if a politician makes a pledge and is called out by fact checkers for being silly and misleading? And what if the pledge also concerns a plan that turns out to be different than what he proposed during the campaign? Is the pledge still valid for ridicule by the other side? That's the interesting question raised by Sen. Barrasso's carefully-worded remarks during the GOP's weekly radio address. Let's take a look. … Obama referred to this $2,500 promise at least 19 times during the 2008 campaign, according to an interesting video (Kessler, 9/11).