The move to defund Obamacare has been slow to gather support in the Senate. Really slow.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee has asked colleagues to sign a letter promising to "not support any continuing resolution or appropriations legislation that funds further implementation or enforcement of Obamacare." Of the Senate's 46 Republicans, just 12 signed the letter when it was released in late July.
In the weeks since, one more Republican, Sen. Mike Crapo, has joined the pledge, bringing the grand total to 13. That means 33 GOP senators have declined.
The non-signers include some of the most conservative members of the Senate. Recently I asked two of them why they have not joined the defunding effort.
"I'm not sure it's the best viable way at this point," said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions. "I'm not convinced right now this is going to be a way that will be successful and effective."
Wisconsin's Ron Johnson, who ran for the Senate on a promise to stop Obamacare, echoed Sessions' words. "It is a very sad, unfortunate fact that with President Obama in the White House, and Harry Reid in the Senate, the only way you can realistically defund Obamacare is to repeal it, and ... we haven't had one Democrat break ranks and join us."
Stopping Obamacare funding would require a Republican filibuster. That would take 41 votes to uphold. There are 46 Republicans in the Senate. That means if just six GOP lawmakers broke ranks and voted with Democrats to continue funding, the effort would fail.
Several Republicans have already voiced opposition to the defunding proposal. Sen. Tom Coburn called it "dishonest." Sen. Richard Burr called it "the dumbest idea I've ever heard of." Sen. Bob Corker called it a "silly effort."
Faced with that reality, some Republicans are discussing a measure that would delay the arrival of Obamacare for a year, or at least delay the start of the individual mandate for a year (as Obama did unilaterally with the employer mandate).
The House has already passed a bill to postpone the individual mandate; 22 Democrats supported it. In the Senate, maybe one or two Democrats would go along, which would stop it cold.
But maybe there's a deal that could be made. Some Republicans are exploring the possibility of trading some of the changes Democrats want in the sequestration spending cuts in exchange for an Obamacare delay. But Republicans would be divided on that, too; the sequestration cuts are the only real spending reductions the GOP has been able to force on the Obama administration. Would Republicans give some of those up?
More than ever, GOP leaders fear the situation could lead to serious intra-party conflict. "We need to make sure that we're not shooting each other," said Johnson.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.