Don't Hold Us Hostage

If things don’t go your way, then ruin it for everybody else. That’s this week’s motto of the Republican Party. The Supreme Court ruled last June that ObamaCare was constitutional, and last November, voters had a chance to replace the man who signed the bill with one who promised very clearly to undo it. We chose to keep the first guy around. The GOP is unfazed, however, by the will of 51 percent of voting Americans. They are preparing to shut down the government unless ObamaCare is delayed, defunded, or “whatever the next d is,” according to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Republicans ran on a platform of repealing ObamaCare in 2012, losing ground in the Senate and, most importantly, failing to capture the White House. In case congressional Republicans think their electoral defeat was the result of not hating ObamaCare enough, here’s some promises Mitt Romney made during the campaign: The day the law was upheld, he said he would “act to repeal ObamaCare” in front of a large sign that read, “Repeal and Replace.” Last July, he wrote in US News, “The law must be repealed.” On his campaign website he promised to sign an executive order “paving the way to end ObamaCare” not just during his presidency, but on the very first day of it. During the nationally televised presidential debate focused on foreign policy, Romney said he would pay for military spending by getting rid of ObamaCare, “to the extent humanly possible.” The American people knew voting for Mitt Romney was voting to end ObamaCare, and they did not vote for him.
Imagine if a baseball team, having lost a game, stole the keys to the winning team’s car and refused to give them back unless they revised the final score. Elections are decided at the ballot box, and these sore loser theatrics have real consequences. The government shutdown will hurt a lot of people—small businesses that can’t get the loans they need to create new jobs, employees at our beautiful national parks, and air traffic controllers who will have to continue to work without pay.
Republicans are welcome to run on a platform of repeal again in 2014 and 2016. If they win, they can make good on their promise and gut the law from end to end. But in the meantime, the American people had their own chance to rule on ObamaCare, and they have upheld it. Don’t hold us hostage just because we didn’t vote for you.
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