Tea Party’s Ross Says Debt Worth Yielding on Obamacare - Bloomberg

Tea Party’s Ross Says Debt Worth Yielding on Obamacare - Bloomberg:

U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn’t include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight that has shut down the government for five days.

 Ross, ranked among the House’s most conservative members by both the Club for Growth and the American Conservative Union, said he shifted his position because the shutdown hasn’t resulted in changes to the Affordable Care Act, which started Oct. 1, the same day government funding ran out. The shutdown also could hurt the party, he said.

Enlarge imageU.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican. Photographer: Tom Williams/Roll Call via Getty Images
“We’ve lost the CR battle,” Ross, referring to the continuing resolution to authorize government spending, said in an interview. “We need to move on and take whatever we can find in the debt limit.” 

Other lawmakers backed by the limited-government Tea Partymovement, including Republican Representative Jim Jordan ofOhio, are refusing to budge. Republican House Speaker John Boehner said yesterday the way to end the government shutdown would be for Democrats to negotiate and accept changes that would produce “fairness” under President Barack Obama’s signature health-care law, also known as Obamacare.
Representative Raul Labrador, an Idaho Republican and leading voice in the fight against Obamacare, said a change to the law “has to be on the table.”

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