By CHARLES BABINGTON
The Associated Press
More than one-third of House Republicans urged their leader Thursday to trigger a government shutdown rather than pay for the implementation of the health-care law they call Obamacare.
A letter from 80 Republicans asked Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to resist any spending bills that would accommodate the new health-care law, which is nearing a critical stage of signing up millions of Americans for health coverage.
Because it’s virtually certain that President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate would reject such demands, leaders of both parties say the standoff likely would result in a partial shutdown of the federal government, similar to those that occurred in 1995 and 1996.
The letter is mixed news for Boehner and other GOP leaders who view a government shutdown as politically unwise.
The federal 2013 fiscal year ends Sept. 30. New money must be appropriated by then to avoid a shutdown of countless government offices and agencies.
Voters chiefly blamed congressional Republicans for the mid-1990s shutdowns, and the fallout boosted Democratic President Clinton. Ever since, many establishment Republicans have urged the party to avoid using shutdown threats as a bargaining tool.
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