Obamacare for real
In late September the right wing of the House of Representatives was attempting to force a government shutdown. Whether or not it succeeds, more brinksmanship looms: a vote on raising the debt ceiling is just weeks away, and Republican hard-liners promise another fight over that. The GOP leadership doesn’t want any of this, but the leadership has tenuous control over its caucus.
The hard-liners’ beef is with Obamacare. Several representatives have joined Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) in insisting that the health-care reform law is so misguided and unworkable—its threat to Americans so great—that desperate measures are required. So they’ll agree to fund government operations or raise the debt ceiling only if Obamacare is stripped of funding.
This stance defies logic. If the reform law is so flawed, why not try to make it better? Why not wait till the law takes full effect and its failure becomes obvious, at which point it could be repealed through less destructive means—without endangering the entire economy?
