The Piecemeal Temptation

Carol Platt Liebau | January 20, 2011 10:47 PM

Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Ben Nelson (D-NE/Cornhusker Kickback) have written John Boehner, telling him that they will support Senate legislation to repeal some of ObamaCare's onerous provisions putting burdensome reporting requirements on business

Surely it's no coincidence that all three senators are up for re-election in 2012.

Their letter is the first of what will become a big temptation for the GOP: To repeal little bits and pieces of well-known, highly unpopular pieces of ObamaCare while, by necessity, leaving the horrible super-structure in place. It's tempting to be able to brag that this or that "key provision" of the law has been pulled back -- but in the end, it will help no one but President Obama and Democrats like Cantwell, Nelson and Klobuchar.

That's because doing it will provide ObamaCare proponents with ammunition to argue -- misleadingly -- that the "problems" with the law have been addressed and there's no need for wholesale repeal.

Presumably, Speaker Boehner and the House GOP are smart enough to see through this trick. It's too little, too late for Democrats like Nelson, Klobuchar and Cantwell to beg for tiny pieces of repeal in order to burnish their electoral records for '12.

Remember, all three of them were the 60th vote that jammed ObamaCare down the throats of the American people.