Congressman GT Thompson has not signed onto this letter:
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. (link to letter http://meadows.house.gov/uploads/Meadows_DefundLetter.pdf )
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.
“I think that number is going to continue to grow as we continue through August,” said Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action for America, the conservative advocacy group that has put $550,000 behind an ad campaign pressuring nearly 100 House GOP holdouts to sign Meadows’ letter. “I don’t accept the premise that this [number] is where we are going to end up.”
Though Meadows’ office submitted the letter to Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., on Thursday, the letter will remain open to receiving more signatures in the days ahead, and Heritage Action will continue to monitor developments, Holler said. Read more.