The number and names are in: 80 House Republicans representing the most conservative wing of their conference have signed the letter urging leadership to defund Obamacare in any spending bill to float the government past Sept. 30.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., doesn’t mention “government shutdown,” but that’s exactly what that strategy would provoke, given that a repeal by any other name is dead on arrival in the Senate and would not be signed by President Barack Obama.
The letter does give the lawmakers an out — it stops short of demanding defunding in return for their votes. And the number — about a third of the GOP Conference — falls well short of putting GOP leaders at risk of violating the “Hastert rule” requiring a majority of the majority if they ignore the letter.
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