http://lobelog.com/the-party-of-no-and-now-an-administration-of-no/#more-38613

The Party of No, and now an Administration of No

by Paul R. Pillar
The abortive attempt to pass Paul Ryan’s bill for tax cuts and partial dismantling of the health care system vividly demonstrated the consequences of trying to govern according to what one is against, rather than what one is for.  If this overwhelmingly negative approach had not been the Republicans’ approach (and Donald Trump’s), the story of the Affordable Care Act, and the politics surrounding it, would have been far different.  That is certainly true given how the ACA is centered on a system of commercial insurance that was earlier associated at the state level with Mitt Romney.  But with Congressional Republicans deciding from the beginning of Barack Obama’s presidency to oppose him at almost every turn and to deny him significant achievements (and, per Mitch McConnell, to make denying him a second term their top priority), and with the ACA being seen as Obama’s premiere domestic legislative accomplishment, total and automatic opposition to the ACA was the course taken.  Trashing Obamacare become a mantra divorced from what the law was or was not doing, and divorced from any careful consideration of Americans’ health care needs.http://lobelog.com/the-party-of-no-and-now-an-administration-of-no/#more-38613