Post-midterm ObamaCare Prognosis; hold the champagne.

• Author: Amerling, Richard
• Position: Health Care Act - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Conservatives and citizens concerned with the direction of the country under Democrat rule turned out in sufficiently large numbers on Election Day to return the Senate to Republican control. Surfing the wave, Republicans increased their majority in the House, and dominated in state elections across the country but, if you think this marks the beginning of the end of Obamacare, think again.

Within days of being assured of taking over as Senate Majority Leader, Kentucky's Mitch McConnell gave assurances there would be no government shutdown, citing concerns over defaulting on our national debt. However, there is no connection between a government shutdown and payments on our debt, which continue automatically, and for which there Is adequate cash flow. There have been 18 instances of the government shutting down going back to the Ford Administration--none led to default on debt payments.

In 2013, Rep. Ted Cruz (R.-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R.-Utah) spearheaded a move to deny funding for the implementation of ObamaCare; House Republicans were dragged along and the government shut down for 16 days. RINO Republicans in the Senate, who, in effect, caved and sabotaged the effort, hammered Cruz and Lee, and pundits such as Karl Rove bemoaned the damage to the "Republican brand." Well, the electorate sure did not seem to mind. You even could make the case that the shutdown helped the Republican cause, as they at least attempted to stop ObamaCare, the rollout of which was--and continues to be--a disaster.

By ruling out a shutdown, Congress preemptively has surrendered its constitutional power of the purse to defund ObamaCare. In other words, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, though every bit the nightmare we predicted it would be, is not going anywhere. Far from being undeterred or humbled by the election results, Obama is pushing forward at breakneck speed to "fundamentally transform" the country in his remaining two years in office, and the Republican leadership is too beholden to the special interests behind ObamaCare to do anything serious to repeal it. Remember--Jonathan Gruber's boasts notwithstanding--the PPACA was cobbled together and promoted by the Insurance, hospital, pharmaceutical, and informatics industries, and even the American Medical Association--and all are reaping the fruits of their lobbying. These groups also give lots of money to Republicans.

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