Republican Lawmaker Says Party 'Lost' CR Battle, Should Move On To Debt Ceiling Talks

GOP Rep: 'We've Lost The CR Battle'
In this 2012 photograph provided by the candidates campaign,Dennis Ross poses for a photo. Dennis Ross is running for the Senate in Florida. (AP Photo)
In this 2012 photograph provided by the candidates campaign,Dennis Ross poses for a photo. Dennis Ross is running for the Senate in Florida. (AP Photo)

Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) said Friday that Republicans have "lost" the battle over attaching Obamacare-related provisions to the continuing resolution to fund the government, and said they should move on to negotiations over raising the debt ceiling.

"We’ve lost the CR battle," he told Bloomberg. "We need to move on and take whatever we can find in the debt limit."

"There are a whole lot of other issues that haunted us at the election other than Obamacare,” he said. “I would hope there’s at least enough of us to constitute a majority of reasonable people that realize we need to give and take."

While more moderate Republicans such as Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) have urged the party to try to pass a clean continuing resolution, Ross is far more conservative than they are. Rep. Michele Bachmann endorsed him in 2010, when he won election during a GOP wave, and he joined the Tea Party Caucus that she created.

Ross conceded earlier this week that Obamacare would be implemented in spite of Republican efforts. "Ultimately that's going to happen, in my opinion. We have voted 41 times to defund it or get rid of it," he told National Journal. "If my people back home say: Oh my gosh you voted to fund Obamacare, so be it. We've lost this battle. We need to move on to the next one."

Before You Go

John Boehner

2013 Government Shutdown

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot