Pathetic Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) on CNN is either lying or incompetent saying he voted to defund ObamaCare. House has never voted on standalone bill to defund O'Care. Dent falsely claims Senate and Pres. have to approve House defunding measures which isn't true. Further, ObamaCare is operating illegally, it's never been approved by the House as a tax

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10/2/13, "Obamacare can be defunded without Senate approval," Examiner, Christopher Collins

"To fund anything, in this case Obamacare, first approval is required by the House of Representatives....If Obamacare is removed from the government budget, presented, and voted on as a separate bill, Obamacare can be defunded by the House. If that is the case, then the Senate and the President can vote yes or no and if the vote is no, then the Obamacare bill can sit in the House with no funding."
 
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10/7/13, "Rep. Dent: House Has Enough Votes for 'Clean CR'," Newsmax, Greg Richter
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"U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent is among 14 House Republicans who have publicly said they would vote for a "clean" continuing resolution — not tied to defunding Obamacare — and he says there are plenty more.

Dent, appearing Monday on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer," said that members have told him privately they would vote for a "clean CR" if it comes up for a vote....

Dent himself said he opposes the Affordable Care Act, but thinks defunding it should not be tied to the continuing resolution. 

"I've voted to delay it, to repeal it, to defund it, to fricassee it, but as long as you have a Senate controlled by Harry Reid and a president named Barack Obama, that's not going to happen," Dent said. "So, at this point we have to take what we can get.""

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1. Rep. Dent has never voted on a standalone bill to defund ObamaCare because such a bill has never been brought to the House floor.

2. Rep. Dent lies or shows mental incompetence when he says defunding can't happen because the Senate and President would have to approve it. The House has sole power to defund or not allocate funds for any matter. House funding votes aren't subject to approval of the Senate or the President. 

3. Rep. Dent fails to acknowledge a key point. The Supreme Court didn't approve ObamaCare as submitted. It changed ObamaCare to a tax.

All taxes must be approved by the House. The House has never approved ObamaCare as a tax. John Boehner has never brought a measure to the floor approving ObamaCare as a tax. ObamaCare is currently proceeding illegally. How is this not criminal negligence on Boehner's part?
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As soon as Obama was re-elected John Boehner enthused that ObamaCare was "the law of the land." ObamaCare isn't the law of the land, isn't legal to this day. Mr. Boehner has failed in his constitutional duty to hold a vote in the House up or down on ObamaCare as a tax:

11/8/13, "John Boehner: ‘Obamacare is the law of the land’," Politico, David Nather

"House Speaker John Boehner made it official Thursday: Obamacare isn’t going anywhere. In an interview with ABC News, Boehner seemed to suggest the election ended any efforts to wipe out the whole law. When “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer asked if there would be any more votes to repeal the law, Boehner said “the election changes that” and “Obamacare is the law of the land.”"

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Comment: The reason we gave the GOP House a huge majority in Nov. 2010 was so they could easily defund ObamaCare. But they never allowed even a mention of it. Month after month went by, billions upon billions of our tax dollars flowed out the door to states to set up ObamaCare. GOP 'leadership' likes ObamaCare, has never had any intention of defunding or repealing it. They even put an ObamaCare defunding measure in the GOP controlled House Appropriations Committee where they made sure it was "deadlocked" for an indefinite period. They showed us who's boss:
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9/29/11, "Draft spending bill would defund Obama healthcare law," The Hill, Sam Baker

"House Republicans released a draft spending bill Thursday that would cut off funding for many parts of the healthcare reform law, though the bill remains deadlocked in the Appropriations Committee."...

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Rep. Dent is a member of the Main Street Partnership, a group that recently removed the word "Republican" from its name to reach out to both Democrats and Republicans:

1/8/13, "Moderate Republican group to remove ‘Republican’ from name, welcome Democrats,
" YahooNews, Chris Moody

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The US is supposed to have a two party system to prevent things from moving too quickly in one direction as they do in one-party countries like Communist China and Cuba. The US has already switched to a system where most laws are passed by thousands of unelected bureaucrats. In 2011 for example, unelected personnel in the executive branch passed 3807 laws, while congress only passed 81 laws. There is little enough left to the people as it is. If you're a Republican who likes democrat ideas, be a democrat. It's more important than ever for the country to have two strong, separate political parties to bring even a small semblance of checks and balances to a bloated system:

"The Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based group that has promoted moderate GOP lawmakers and policies, will remove the word "Republican" from its title and welcome center-right Democrats in 2013, Yahoo News has learned.

The organization's board of directors voted Tuesday morning to scrap party identification from its title and be known simply as "The Main Street Partnership." The group's new president, former Ohio Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette, told Yahoo News that he plans to begin conversations with Blue Dog Democrats and centrist groups in the coming months.

"The goal is to try and fill the void that is the middle," LaTourette, who resigned from Congress this year, said. "The American political system is like a doughnut: You've got sides, but you don't have anything in the middle, and it would be my goal to work with Republicans and Democrats who want to find the path forward to getting things done and compromise."

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, LaTourette added: “While we have changed our name, we have not changed our values or our mission. We will continue to be a right of center organization and continue to represent the governing wing of the Republican Party."

The Main Street Partnership will also expand its super PAC, Defending Main Street, that will fund Republicans moderates, LaTourette said, adding, "It's not going to be focused so much on party as it is on protecting people from the right and left extremes if they choose to do the right things."

In Congress, LaTourette was known to vote against party leadership: He opposed a measure that would strip federal funding of National Public Radio in 2011, and he was one of just two Republicans who did not support censuring Attorney General Eric Holder.

Current members of the Main Street organization include Republican Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Republican Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee;  and  Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers of Washington, who was named chairman of the House Republican Conference in November.

Update: An earlier version of this article reported that LaTourette said the group's super PAC would be open to funding Democratic campaigns. LaTourette later said he misspoke and that while he is willing to work with Democrats, the super PAC will only fund Republicans. This article has been updated to reflect that."

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"In 2011, the US Congress passed a total of 81 new “laws” while government agencies issued 3,807 new regulations."  

7/22/12, "The Cost Of Government Regulation: $1.75 Trillion," Zero Hedge

"In the US, the federal government lists its regulations in what is called the Code of Federal Regulations. These rules of the economic “game” cover 169,000 pages and more than ten new ones are added every day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. In 2011, the US Congress passed a total of 81 new “laws” while government agencies issued 3,807 new regulations
."...   
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"The vast majority of “laws” governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations, crafted largely by thousands of unnamed, unreachable bureaucrats....The shift of authority has been staggering. The fourth branch now has a larger practical impact on the lives of citizens than all the other branches combined."

5/24/13, "The rise of the fourth branch of government," Washington Post, Jonathan Turley, opinion
 
"The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.

This exponential growth has led to increasing power and independence for agencies. The shift of authority has been staggering. The fourth branch now has a larger practical impact on the lives of citizens than all the other branches combined."...