The way ObamaCare was passed and upheld -- the legislative chicanery, the kickbacks, the tortured legal reasoning, the overall jam-down -- was, to put it mildly, problematic.
The law itself is riddled with failings; implementation looks to be a mess.
Given all that, just to be contrarian, consider this: If it is, indeed, impossible to defund and/or repeal ObamaCare now, might it not be better to let it go into effect, so that voters have the opportunity to experience it -- in all its hideousness -- before the 2014 elections?
Is it strategically wise for Republicans to take the political blame for a shut down, just to secure an extra year for all the confusion and kinks that inevitably attend a government anything to be ironed out in ObamaCare?
The damage that will be done in the interim is cruel. But it's nothing compared to the mess that will be created if Democrats get a chance to retrench just enough to hold the law (barely) together.
If anything, given the circumstances, perhaps it's most unfortunate that certain privileged groups have obtained waivers from ObamaCare. If we have to go over the ObamaCare cliff, we should all be going over together . . . good and hard.
That may be the only way, I fear, for Republicans to gain the electoral numbers that will enable us to repeal and replace this ugly, disastrous law once and for all.