Daniel Henninger: Let ObamaCare Collapse

[Ptarmigan]

Daniel Henninger: Let ObamaCare Collapse
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304526204579097443230322758.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion

What the GOP's Defund-ObamaCare Caucus is failing to see is that ObamaCare is no longer just ObamaCare. It is about something that is beyond the reach of a congressional vote.

As its Oct. 1 implementation date arrives, ObamaCare is the biggest bet that American liberalism has made in 80 years on its foundational beliefs. This thing called "ObamaCare" carries on its back all the justifications, hopes and dreams of the entitlement state. The chance is at hand to let its political underpinnings collapse, perhaps permanently.

If ObamaCare fails, or seriously falters, the entitlement state will suffer a historic loss of credibility with the American people. It will finally be vulnerable to challenge and fundamental change. But no mere congressional vote can achieve that. Only the American people can kill ObamaCare.

The monstrosity called ObamaCare is a failure.

[docstew]

Daniel Henninger: Let ObamaCare Collapse
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304526204579097443230322758.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion

The monstrosity called ObamaCare is a failure.

Mrs Obama and Fat Government

"The closest thing to immortality on this Earth," Ronald Reagan once said, "is a federal government program." We still have a Rural Electrification Administration for Heaven's sake (though it's been renamed) -- FDR's program to bring electrical power to rural areas.

No problem that the federal government undertakes to tackle can ever be recognized as solved because to do so would mean the dissolution of an agency. And if the federal program creates new problems, well, those are then excuses for new agencies.

[DumbAss Tanker]

It's actually a pretty good point and might be a better strategy, if it weren't for the 'Going down without a fight' optics of letting it go into effect without standing in the way.  Unlike all the other entitlement programs, Obamacare is pay-as-you-go and pay-to-play, not just a freebie, and when people see the cost of it up close and personal, they aren't going to be happy at all.

[docstew]

Just more evidence to me that election day should be the day after tax day.

[Big Dog]

It's actually a pretty good point and might be a better strategy, if it weren't for the 'Going down without a fight' optics of letting it go into effect without standing in the way.  Unlike all the other entitlement programs, Obamacare is pay-as-you-go and pay-to-play, not just a freebie, and when people see the cost of it up close and personal, they aren't going to be happy at all.

Exactly.

If the Republican leadership had any strategy beyond "let's be 95% Democrats, and hope the voters reward us for the difference", they would fight ObamaCare tooth and nail every step of the way. When they lose (and lose they shall), they should proclaim on every TV show, newspaper, and website that the Dems own it. Every time another Obamacare train wrecks, the unified Republican message should be "The Democrats tied this cement block to your ankle and pushed you out of the boat into deep water, and you let them".

But the Republican leadership have less collective testosterone than a Priscilla, Queen of the Desert one-man show by Bradley Manning.

[Dori]

Only the American people can kill ObamaCare.

I think that's probably the only solution.