Conservatives' Ahab-like determination to destroy Obamacare is actually obliterating their own party

[DonViejo]

WEDNESDAY, SEP 11, 2013 08:30 AM -0400

The right’s Obamacare obsession is destroying the Republican Party

Conservatives' Ahab-like determination to destroy Obamacare is actually obliterating their own party

BY BRIAN BEUTLER

The right’s Ahab-like determination to destroy Obamacare has so thoroughly overtaken the conservative wing of the GOP that its loyalists in Congress are about to squander an opportunity to hand Democrats a huge defeat in the fight over sequestration, and hasten the Republican crackup in the process.

Conservatives are poised — once again! — to align with progressives in temporarily handing control of the House of Representatives over to Nancy Pelosi, and protecting the poor from deep government spending cuts. All because GOP leaders don’t think suicide is a wise political strategy.

You know the backstory. Over the past few months, but most intensely during this August’s Congressional recess, the right organized itself around an impossible demand: no funding for the government unless President Obama agrees to defund his own health care law.

House GOP leaders correctly concluded that demand would earn the party a one-way ticket to complete blame for a government shutdown, followed by a swift, humiliating defeat in the fight over Obamacare. But the right’s not really known for its openness to persuasion. So GOP leaders decided they’d try to hoodwink everyone instead. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor devised a strategy of pairing a symbolic vote to defund the health care law with a sub rosa effort to force semi-permanent austerity on the country.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/11/conservatives_are_screwing_over_the_gop_leadership_again/