Coats: ObamaCare threat a ‘Hail Mary’

Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) on Friday criticized the threat to shut down the government over ObamaCare, calling it a “Hail Mary pass” that will miss the mark.

The proposal, pushed by members like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), to tie the defunding of the healthcare law to a government funding bill has gained little traction in the upper chamber — and there’s a reason for that, according to Coats.

“Here’s the hard truth: President Obama will not overturn his signature legislation so long as he is president and the Democrats have control of the Senate,” Coats said in an op-ed in the Indianapolis Star. 

{mosads}Coats said he will introduce legislation to delay the individual mandate to have health insurance until after 2014 in order to make the midterm elections a referendum on ObamaCare. The Obama administration has already delayed the mandate on employers until 2015.

“Some argue that the 2012 election was a referendum, but the full scale of the law’s problems was not yet known,” he said. 

So far, only 14 Republicans in the upper chamber have signed on to the defunding strategy, according to a website set up by some members to track the whip count.

Coats — like other Republicans who oppose the defunding threat  — said he is wholly opposed to the healthcare law, but thinks defeating it will take time.

“On the gridiron, it is usually the better call to kick a field goal and send a game into overtime than to try a last-second ‘Hail Mary’ pass in hopes of a win. The contest over ObamaCare can be won in overtime,” he said.