According to Politico, the Republicans “readily and publicly admit that repeal [of ObamaCare] is impossible in the next four years unless something outrageous happens.” It is also almost impossible that the Democrats will retake control of the House of Representatives in the next four years. What this means is that the Republican House will have to take some responsibility for the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act even as their leader continues to tout repeal of the law as a goal. This is hardly an ideal situation.
The Republicans had hoped that the Supreme Court would overturn the Act. When that failed to happen, they hoped that Mitt Romney would be elected and could shred the law. That also failed to happen. So, now they are going to treat ObamaCare like some combination of the Vince Foster suicide and the Fast & Furious controversy.
“I’ve long maintained there are three possible routes to repeal of ObamaCare: the courts, the presidential election, and our constitutional responsibility for oversight,” Boehner wrote in a letter to House Republicans earlier this month. “With two of them having come up short, the third and final of these becomes more important than ever.”
You to need to be prepared to witness House Oversight and Government Reform chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) issue countless meritless subpoenas in an effort to discredit the implementation of ObamaCare. Yet, even as the Republicans kick and scream, they will have to pass bills that fund and regulate the health reforms. If they find real problems, their constituents will expect them to fix those problems, not hold them up as political banners.
The GOP seems to have settled into an unfamiliar place. They have gerrymandered the House to the point that they have safe control of the lower chamber, but they are finding it increasingly difficult to win statewide races, so control of the Senate is becoming difficult to attain, and winning the White House seems out of reach for the foreseeable future. As a result, their primary responsibility is to use the House to fund the operations of the federal government. This is distasteful to them because they oppose most of what the federal government does and they are committed to the proposition that the federal government isn’t any good at doing what it does. They don’t seem to realize that holding hearings about the difficulties involved in implementing health care reform will only make them look incompetent. The implementation of the reforms is, after all, their responsibility.
We are at the beginning of a process that is going to change the natures of both major parties. At the outset, the GOP is going to be throwing a lot of tantrums. But, by being shut out of the White House and limited to control of the House, over time they will become legislators. Right now, their instinct is to punt these decisions back to the states.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), another top supporter of repeal, said his focus will turn to trying to allow states to implement the law as they want.
“As Republicans, we have to say we’re going to repeal this as soon as we can,” DeMint said. “Until then, we’re going to do everything we can to allow the states that want to, to do this the right away. If we can do that, we’ll have accomplished a lot given the political climate.”
Sen. DeMint’s remarks ring hollow, however, when you consider that most Republican governors are refusing to set up their own health care exchanges which is forcing the federal government to do it for them. Ultimately, the House Republicans will have to resign themselves to overseeing the work of the Department of Health & Human Services. They will be confronted with a basic lie at the heart of their ideology. When they punt health policy to the states, they will find health policy punted right back to them, because it isn’t true that Republicans prefer policy to be set at the state and local level. The truth is that they are hostile to government on all levels. The longer they control the House, the less operative that false ideology will be.
