Several dozen conservative Republicans are
giddy with glee, because they think President Obama's handling of Syria means that the end of Obamacare is finally upon us:
A weakened President Obama will back down if there is a standoff over funding ObamaCare and preventing a government shutdown, House conservatives say.
They are urging Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to gamble that Obama and Senate Democrats will take the blame if they reject legislation that keeps the government running but stops ObamaCare.
At least 43 conservatives want the GOP leadership to go for broke, asserting that Obama has been damaged by stumbles over Syria and by several delays in implementing the Affordable Care Act.
That's so loopy that you'd think this was an article from
The Onion, but it actually appears to be real:
“Syria has hurt him significantly … it is a factor in the CR going forward, it is a factor in the debt ceiling,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said.
King thinks that what happened with Syria was some sort of big victory for wingnuts like him, but he couldn't be more wrong. Yes, conservative Republicans opposed Obama on Syria, but they opposed him is because they oppose anything that he does. And their opposition didn't really create a problem for the president.
As with the Larry Summers nomination, the real challenge President Obama had with Syria (at least as it relates to Congress) was getting support from Democrats—particularly progressive ones. And as far assessing King's argument, whether or not that dynamic continues going forward doesn't really matter, because no matter how you look at it, progressive Democrats getting a backbone isn't bad news for Obamacare.
There's really only one political development that would have spelled serious trouble for Obamacare: If Republicans had won the last election. But as President Obama said today:
"The candidate who called for repeal lost," Obama on #Obamacare
— @StevenTDennis
And you can bet your cantoloupes, he's not going sign any legislation repealing it.