On Wednesday evening, July 17th, the House of Representatives voted 251-174 to delay ObamaCare's individual mandate, previously set to take full effect in 2014.
This vote was a major victory, and a major milestone on the way to full and complete repeal of ObamaCare.
This vote sent a message, telling President Obama that delaying the employer mandate and maintaining the individual mandate is simply wrong and unfair. We won't stand by and watch his Administration unilaterally act to privilege big businesses and major health insurance companies and leave small businesses and regular Americans out in the cold.
And you played a major role in helping this vote be successful.
You didn't just flood Congressional offices with phone calls.
You've also supported our work with the ObamaCare Repeal Pledge, helping to ensure voters have a clear litmus test to tell which candidates and which office holders are committed to full and complete repeal.
And, you've supported our vital work in the Repeal Coalition.
I can tell you that the Repeal Coalition was critical to this strong showing. Because of the Coalition's hard work, some who previously only saw value in a repeal-only approach have come around to see delay and defund as serious tactical approaches to achieving everyone's end goal of full repeal. As the Wall Street Journal editorialized:
The votes are also notable for what they reveal about a potential Republican turn toward a more constructive political strategy. Some of our friends on the right like the Club for Growth and Heritage Action political committees are opposing any bills that target specific provisions of the entitlement. They want to repeal and defund the law in toto, as do we, but they claim that incremental steps dilute political opposition and would "fix" ObamaCare. Fixing this monstrosity is impossible, even if the House has rightly declined to make the technical, operational and funding tweaks that the White House desires. But the repeal-or-nothing lobby opposes major changes that would cause ObamaCare to do less if not no harm, to adapt the Hippocratic Oath.
The Repeal Pledge and the Repeal Coaliton were critical to the success of this vote.
And you've been critical to our success. We couldn't be doing this without you.
The fight, of course, is far from over.
ObamaCare is coming apart at the seams — in fact, government officials just warned that ObamaCare's state health insurance exchanges are expecting major delays. This is just the latest in a parade of ObamaCare implementation calamities.
But the tireless proponents of this government take-over of our personal and private health care decisions aren't backing down.
And neither are we.
There will be more big fights coming. And we'll need you standing by us.
With your help, we'll keep winning victories like this one — culminating in full repeal of ObamaCare.