"The real problem with the Republican position isn’t that it is unprecedented or inherently out of bounds but that it is unlikely to achieve much. To put it mildly, the Republican handling of the continuing resolution has lacked the forethought traditionally associated with successful strategy. Republicans are now on their third version of the continuing resolution. Defunding is so last Tuesday. They have bid themselves down to a delay of the individual mandate and imposing ObamaCare on Congress. 

"Every indication is that Reid welcomed a shutdown on the assumption that Republicans could be made to pay the price. It’s not a bad bet, but the risk to Democrats is that they make their eagerness to press their partisan advantage too blatant. If the shutdown is so dire, presumably they should want to talk about how to resolve it. If the temporary suspension of specific government functions — the parks, services to veterans — is so harmful, presumably they should welcome Republican bills to restore them."

"Fear not the shutdown, Republicans in Congress!  

"You are the supposedly conservative alternative in politics and we are currently $16 trillion in the hole. The least you can do is stop spending so much money everyday to keep the vile beast going. Also, as the supposedly conservative alternative, you should be thrilled that all the 'nonessential' bureaucrats have been sent home while our military remains at post.  

"For most of us innocent taxpayers, this suits us just fine. The only people who should be scared are the big-government enthusiasts when the vast majority of Americans realize they didn't even notice the monstrous federal government had shut down and that they really don't need all of this nonsense that hurls us deeper and deeper into an abyss of debt with every passing week."

"Every Republican should be out front, on TV, radio and in print this week with a simple message:   

"'We have twice voted to fund every agency and program of the U.S. government (save ObamaCare) in a single CR. We will proceed now to pass CRs for each department and agency of the U.S. government, separately and individually. 

"And if Harry Reid's Senate refuses to pass a single one of those CRs, who then is shutting down NIH and the FDA?'"

"It's shutdown morning in Washington. Here's where we stand:  

"The Senate is scheduled to come back today at 2:00 p.m. At that point, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated, the Senate will reject the continuing resolution to fund the government passed by the House on Sunday morning. That resolution would delay ObamaCare for one year and repeal the medical-device tax. If no measure to fund the government is agreed to by the House and Senate by tonight, the government will shut down."

"Americans don’t want a dignified surrender on ObamaCare. They want someone to drive a stake through ObamaCare. ...  
 
"Two weeks ago, a brave Congress, listening to America, stood up and told Obama: Your red lines be damned; we’re not voting for war on Syria.

"Now House Republicans need to tell the country: Come hell or high water, we’re not voting to fund ObamaCare. We will pass a CR on everything else in the budget, but ObamaCare is not coming out of this House alive."

"[I]nstead of attacking ObamaCare and the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Democrats over this massively unpopular law, far too many Republicans have been spending their time attacking Ted Cruz. (Why didn't we see one-tenth as much venom directed at Sen. Marco Rubio for trying to give the Democrats 30 million new voters with amnesty as we have toward Cruz for trying to defund ObamaCare?)  

"For every minute you spend attacking Cruz on TV, Republicans, could you consider spending two minutes attacking ObamaCare?  ... 

"Whether or not Cruz succeeds, we wouldn't be talking about ObamaCare this week without his efforts to defund it -- at least those of us who are talking about this disastrous law, rather than attacking Cruz."

"Like an estimated 22 million other Americans, I am a self-employed small-business owner who buys health insurance for my family directly on the individual market. We have a high-deductible PPO plan that allows us to choose from a wide range of doctors. 

"Or rather, we had such a plan. 

"Last week, our family received notice from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado that we can no longer keep the plan we like because of 'changes from health care reform (also called the Affordable Care Act or ACA).'  The letter informed us that 'to meet the requirements of the new laws, your current plan can no longer be continued beyond your 2014 renewal date.' 

"In short: Obama lied. My health plan died."

"Changing the outcome in the Senate may be unlikely, but what is far from certain is that the GOP will be damaged, on balance, if a shutdown occurs because Obama insists on preserving Obamacare at all costs. Though no one on either side knows for sure, I think that fighting a defunding battle, even if Republicans lose, will greatly enhance, rather than diminish, the GOP's prospects in 2014 and 2016.  

"The pragmatists always seem so fatalistic and defeatist in these battles, surrendering before we even begin the fight. But there is no telling how many millions of Americans have become wholly disillusioned by the GOP's reluctance to fight Obama and to offer an inspiring alternative agenda. These people -- millions, armed in the holy cause of liberty -- are craving leadership from Republicans who understand the gravity of our current path, and they will rally around it in surprising numbers if Republicans provide it."

"Americans are speaking loud and clear. They don’t want to lose their health plans and be forced into ObamaCare exchanges, keep their businesses small to avoid the law’s penalties, and let bureaucrats and politicians in Washington make their health care decisions. Let’s listen. 

"They deserve a win. I intend to use every tool available to me to defund ObamaCare, and am encouraged by the thousands of phone calls, tweets, and emails that come to my office each day. 

"Republicans have the momentum. Conservatives defeated the president’s gun control measures to deprive Second Amendment rights from law-abiding Americans. We pushed back on his reckless drone policy. We convinced him to seek congressional approval on military action in Syria. 

"Now, we’re poised to win our biggest victory for the American people yet: defunding ObamaCare. All we have to do is have the will to fight."

"Grassroots pressure from conservatives has induced the House Republican leadership to permit a vote on a continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare. That is excellent news.

"For spearheading the move to defund the (Not Remotely) Affordable Care Act, intrepid Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have been scalded by the usual ruling class crowd of GOP establishment leaders and Obama administration officials. Yet public resistance to a law the public has never liked – and about which the public grows increasingly anxious as its deleterious consequences and exploding costs begin to materialize – has forced leadership’s hand even as it demonstrates, yet again, the divide between the Beltway and the country. ... 

"What conservative proponents of defunding are seeking is not a repeal. Conservatives seek merely to do what Obama is already doing: defund the law … except conservatives would defund within constitutional norms. This would be a refusal to fund a law accomplished by the branch of government responsible for spending and lawmaking, not by an imperial president who has usurped lawmaking power and would coerce spending in accordance with his political whims, not equal protection of law for all Americans.

"That is an argument conservatives can win, shutdown or no shutdown."