Already in Obama's Lap?

Jeffrey Anderson, in an article aptly titled "Wimping Out on Obamacare?" warns that the GOP is already hard at work to save the Affordable Care Act, something I feared might eventually happen (i.e., at least take some time). Referring to no fewer than three ACA-saving tweaks in the works, Anderson asks:

[W]hy would Republicans want to "fix" the law in this way? The focus of Obamacare's opponents should be on repealing and replacing the overhaul, not on repairing it -- and everything they do should be with an eye toward advancing that larger goal. In the short term, therefore, they can look to pull pieces out of Obamacare -- particularly pieces whose absence would simultaneously provide relief for Americans and undermine Obamacare. A fine example is the individual mandate: Americans hate it, and Obamacare relies upon it. Another good play is to highlight especially egregious sections that haven't gotten much popular attention, such as the effective ban on building or expanding doctor-owned hospitals -- a striking example of Obamacare's rampant cronyism, and one that comes at the expense of a group with whom Republicans would be well-served to align themselves.

Anderson isn't even writing from a consistently free-market perspective and he can see the folly in this approach. Will the GOP wake up? Anderson thinks it might. Had I not already set my bar so low -- only to be disappointed already -- I might feel more of the slight optimism Anderson ends his article with.

-- CAV