We share Sen. Ted Cruz’s view that ObamaCare is a catastrophe.
That said, now that the filibuster is over and it seems even less likely ObamaCare will be defunded, we hope Republicans don’t neglect other efforts. They start with the most important thing we’ve learned: Folks who have to live under this bad law are the ones most opposed to it.
This is the principle behind two recent GOP initiatives. The first is an amendment by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that would quash the sweet subsidies Congress and its staff will get to pay for their increased costs once they start buying their health insurance on ObamaCare exchanges (as required by an earlier amendment). The beauty of Vitter’s amendment is that it focuses attention on the key issue: If this law is so good, why don’t the people who wrote and passed it want it for themselves?
The other is in the same spirit. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he will propose a constitutional amendment to require all federal workers — including the president and the justices of the Supreme Court — to buy their health care on ObamaCare exchanges. Though a constitutional amendment is a long shot, the debate it would provoke would also put the Beltway’s double standard on ObamaCare in the spotlight.
Both efforts borrow from Saul Alinsky, who advised his fellow community organizers to make their enemies “live up to their own book of rules.” We’d put it another way: The more pain our governing class feels from ObamaCare, the more eager they will be to help us get rid of it.