Discharge Petition Effort May Force Vote On Repeal Of Obamcare

From Red State Morning Briefing:




Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)



Thursday, June 24th at 7:00AM EDT



There’s this thing in the United States House of Representatives called a “discharge petition.” In a nutshell, a congressman can write a bill and, when the leaders in charge of the House refuse to do anything with it, the congressman can file a discharge petition. The petition, if personally signed by 218 congressmen, forces the House Speaker to put the matter up for a vote by the House.



Why is this important?



Well, every Republican in the House of Representatives and a bunch of Democrats say if a vote were held tomorrow, they would vote to repeal Obamacare. In fact, if you add up all the Blue Dogs, the Republicans, and the Democrats now scrambling for political cover saying they’d vote to repeal, you arrive at the magic number of 218, which also happens to be the total number of votes needed to pass a piece of legislation in the House of Representatives.



Congressman Steve King (R-IA) has filed a discharge petition on legislation he has drafted to repeal Obamacare. He needs 218 signatures.



A month or so ago I told you the Heritage Foundation has spun off a new 501(c)(4) group they are calling Heritage Action. This group will do political advocacy work the Heritage Foundation cannot do as a 501(c)(3) organization. Heritage Action will be able to leverage the hundreds of thousands if not millions of Heritage Foundation supporters around the country for action. And Heritage Action for America is making Rep. King’s discharge petition its first item for action.



So here’s the deal: Republicans in Congress say they’d vote for full repeal of Obamacare. But how many are willing to put their signature where their mouth is? Will John Boehner sign the discharge petition? Will Eric Cantor? Will Mike Pence (of course Pence will)? Will they work to get other Republicans to sign it?



What about Blue Dogs like Jim Marshall (D-GA)? Will he sign it? Remember: if it gets 218 signatures, Nancy Pelosi must hold a vote whether or not she wants to.



This is where you come in. Go to Heritage Action for America and get involved. Sign up, join the site, and start calling members of Congress asking them to sign the Discharge Petition. Many of them say they are for repeal. Let’s weed out the honest ones from the liars