Instead of helping the cause of limited government, the government shutdown created an opening for Democrats to associate
lower taxes with being uncompassionate, Cannon said. To avoid the same mistake this time, he suggested that if Republicans
take back the majority, they should force the administration to defend the aspects of the law that generate the most public
opposition.
"If you want to be successful, you have to make sure you're doing it in a way that is going to make the law unpopular and not
make you unpopular," he said. "And to do that, you can't defund the whole thing. You have to pick something that is crucial,
that will cause major problems for proponents of it."
One of the most effective tactics Republicans could use, he said, would be to pass an appropriations bill that includes the
more restrictive language on abortion championed by Rep. Bart Stupak, who ultimately caved and supported a bill that did
allow for public funding (though he vehemently denies it). Such a move would provoke a fight in which pro-choice Democrats
would once again have to choose between ObamaCare and limits on private abortion coverage. (Given that the health care law
has government subsidizing private policies, a broad number of private policies would be subject to such restrictions for the
first time.) On top of that, public funding for abortion is something that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to.
"If you put the Stupak language in an appropriations bill, you can win the message war and remind the public that this is
what ObamaCare does, and that it's always going to do this unless you repeal it," Cannon said. Even if Republicans ultimately
flinch, "We could spend weeks and weeks talking about how ObamaCare covers abortion and making it less and less popular."
While he said that he thinks it would be "fantastic" if a full defunding strategy worked, it could provide Democrats with an
opening to win a battle that gets framed as uncompassionate Republicans versus compassionate Democrats.
