This morning on ABC's This Week, Ted Cruz said that Republicans still have a chance of repealing "every single word" of Obamacare in 2015. No, they don't. But he does think saying that will get him votes and support and other benefits. There are people out there who, first of all, buy into the lie that — as he claimed — the Affordable Care Act has cost "millions of jobs." And secondly, there are folks out there who admire a person who fights and fights and fights and fights and won't admit defeat.
I don't know about your life but in mine, I know people who've taken a medium-sized loss and turned it into a devastating one by chanting this storybook mantra about how a man who won't be defeated can't be defeated. Hey, watch any sporting event where two teams compete. One always loses. I had an acquaintance — now deceased and in large part because of this — who lost a lawsuit, lost all appeals…and then proceeded to lose his life's savings and health, going from lawyer to lawyer, trying to find one who could reverse the loss. By the end, I don't think he even thought he had a winnable case. He just thought that Not Giving Up would somehow prevail.
Cruz isn't dumb enough to think Barack Obama, who'll still be in the White House in 2015, will sign legislation that wipes out Obamacare. Cruz is also not dumb enough to think Republicans can rack up a veto-proof majority in the Senate. There aren't enough seats in play for that to happen. And Obamacare is becoming more popular, not less.
And on top of all that, so many people are signing up for it that you can't just repeal it without dumping millions out of their health plans. To get rid of it now, you have to offer a workable alternative…which Republicans don't have.
I'm not worried about Obamacare being repealed. I do fear for a country that thinks Ted Cruz is a leader.