Can Republicans Successfully Halt Obamacare?

Republican House leadership is feeling the pressure.

As we get closer and closer to the implementation of Obamacare, aka the Affordable Healthcare Act, Republicans are looking to their leadership for a plan that would lead to the defunding or delaying of the new healthcare laws.

Last week, House Republicans rejected a plan by Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to delay Obamacare, saying that it was not strong enough. Since then, another plan that would delay implementation for a year and includes one-year's worth of temporary funding has become more popular.

Republicans are set to meet in closed-door sessions on Wednesday, and according to a spokesman for Boehner, no decisions will be made until then. Rep. Steve Southerland of Florida said that a plan to delay Obamacare would be seriously discussed at the meeting.

"We want to protect the American people from a bad law and we want to make sure that the government is funded to provide services that the American people deserve and expect," Southerland said. "It's the Republican party that's trying to figure out as hard as we can to do both of those things."

If the House comes up with a plan that both suspends Obamacare and provides plans for government funding, it's likely that the Democratically-led Senate will simply cut out the portion relating to Obamacare before sending it back to the House., setting the scene for the type of partisan squabbling that has halted progress in Congress many times in recent history.

According to reporting by Reuters, some Republicans would also consider fighting an increase on the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling as another alternative for delaying new healthcare laws.

The Obama administration and the House and Senate must reach a decision on Congressional funding by October 1 in order to prevent a government shutdown.