John “I Fought the law and the law won” Boehner

Dear Mr. Boehner, aka Mr. “We fought the good fight”

Did you mean to say “we fought the FOOD fight”?  Would you like a winning strategy to pursue next time?

Here goes.  The House should pass TWO budgets.  One of them repeals* ObamaCare and the other includes a 2,200 page addendum. That addendum IS Obama Care – a verbatim version of the original Affordable Care Act (full text – very large PDF download) with these changes:

(1) remove the last minute provisions Harry Reid inserted to get the last handful of votes he needed to pass it in March 2010,

(2) make all of Congress and all federal employees subject to the law without subsidies or pay raises, and

(3) rescind or repeal every exemption and amendment HHS and the White House have granted since the law passed.

Send both bills to the Senate and let them choose.  Remind the Democrats of the 2010 elections.  Remind them, as Nancy Pelosi told us, that they needed to pass the bill to see what was in it.  Tell them that now, the law having been seen, they have to put their votes where their mouths are – on Barack Obama’s rear-end.

15 of 55 Democratic senators are up for reelection (and 5 are retiring).  Can Harry Reid get the votes for this dog of a law again?  (NOTE – don’t let him pass it with a simple majority; spot him FIVE votes from weak-kneed Republicans (John McCain, Lamar Alexander, and Mitch McConnell, for example) making make Reid get ALL 55 of the Democrats get to a filibuster proof 60.)

IF they pass it, they own it – along with McConnell and Alexander – and 2014 and 2016 are in the bag for the GOP.

This is not a surrender, it’s a recognition of reality. There is no way to repeal it directly, so the only hope is to take the risk that the Democrats will admit their error by refraining from repeating it.  Amendments (like removing the medical device tax, etc) put the GOP’s fingerprints on the law and that’s unwise.  The right legislative approach is to disown the law entirely and be willing to live with either outcome and live to fight another day.

Sincerely,

Winners

* Or at least delays it beyond 2016 presidential election.  Wouldn’t it be telling to hear them scream that the law might not survive if Obama is not president to force it through.