“Obamacare is the gift that keeps on giving. We [the GOP] just need to keep out of the way.” Wanna bet they can't resist getting in the way?

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GOP found political gold in Obamacare
By Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan, November 13, 2013

House Republicans have a rich history of going too far — most of the time way too far.

Budget fights turn into referendums on abortion. Health care debates swerve into discussions about rape. The struggle over immigration reform had some in the GOP pushing to kick people out of America.

But as the Obamacare rollout gets worse with each passing day, Speaker John Boehner and his House GOP colleagues are being handed political gold — and they think they’ve figured out a way to avoid screwing it up.

The Obamacare playbook, as described by several high-level House GOP aides and lawmakers, includes lots of committee oversight, some targeted legislation and lots of rhetoric. But there will be no more votes to defund or repeal Obamacare — the issue that led to the disastrous 16-day government shutdown — the GOP leadership says. At some point, top Republicans say, there might be a vote to delay the law for a year.

They will pass Obamacare-related bills when opportunities arise — like this week — but Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) neatly encapsulated the party’s emerging strategy: “We should be just like a doctor and do no harm.”

“Obamacare is the gift that keeps on giving,” a senior House aide said on condition of anonymity. “We just need to keep out of the way.”

It’s not going to be easy. This is the same group that threatened its majority status last month by bumbling into the shutdown. Over the past year, the House GOP also temporarily blocked aid for the hurricane-stricken East Coast, held up the Violence Against Women Act and nearly caused an economic meltdown by flirting with an unprecedented default on U.S. debt.

But the plan, for the moment, is working beautifully. Defeated, dejected and dispirited just a month ago following the end of the shutdown, House Republicans are now pivoting off millions of Americans losing their health insurance plans by scheduling a vote on Michigan Rep. Fred Upton’s Keep Your Health Plan Act later this week.

The bill would allow people to keep their canceled health insurance plan for the next year. Unless the White House comes up with a better way to keep millions of Americans from losing their plans, senior House Democratic aides expect a large number of their members to cross the aisle and vote for the Upton package. A senior House Democratic staffer estimated between 20 and 100 Democrats — depending on the circumstances — could vote with the GOP to pass the bill, which would be a huge political blow to President Barack Obama and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who helped pass Obamacare in 2010.

A closed-door meeting of House Democrats on Wednesday was ugly as members vented about the Affordable Care Act debacle, lawmakers and aides said, as was a similar gathering of California Democrats — among the most liberal House bunch. House Democrats will meet again on Thursday to discuss Obamacare’s implementation, and the mood isn’t likely to be any better.

The Republicans’ stunningly good political fortunes — practically none of their making — don’t end there.
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