Obamacare: Cruz’ing for a Bruising?

All conservatives want Obamacare repealed. What divides them is how to go about doing it. Sen. Ted Cruz has stirred the dormant frustrations of many conservatives hoping someone in Washington would stand up and openly fight this madness.

Conventional thinking inside the Beltway GOP says the best way to fight Obamacare is to delay the individual mandate. Barack Obama has already delayed the employee mandate, and the public would find a delay in the individual mandate appealing. Delay the mandates long enough, and Obamacare may never get off the ground. Obama may oppose it, but in the end, the public is on our side and he would probably cave on it. The thinking goes that this approach could score Republicans a tactical victory.

Then there is the other conservative wing led by Sen. Cruz that thinks we should defund Obamacare altogether. While they fund the rest of government, this more direct approach invites the full scorn of the media, and a certain presidential veto. It would bring on a government shutdown, and risks setting the conservative movement back. While the public surely opposes Obamacare, the conventional thinking is that the nation would grow weary of the political deadlock and blame Republicans for a government shutdown. And in a vacuum, this thinking is probably true.

But we are not living in a vacuum. Those focusing on the nose count on Capitol Hill are missing a larger point. At the same time this battle in Washington is being waged, Obamacare is being rolled out to the public, and people will soon discover the reality of Obamacare on their wallet. Obama is spending billions to advertise and to push his program with Navigators posed as insurance agents to enroll people. Obamacare will launch in January ready or not. And the public at large is about to find out it is definitely not ready.

Regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill, Obamacare will not be defeated until there is a popular uprising to end it. With the defund movement in Congress, the sticker shock over rates, and the hard sell to enroll people for a program almost no one wants, the critical mass necessary to turn the public decisively against Obamacare may be at hand.

We have been cautious long enough. We need to fight Obamacare. This is a movement. We need to fight it with principle and in the trenches of public opinion. Sen. Cruz is to be commended to lighting the fire that may finally end this monstrosity. If this isn’t the issue that conservatives stand and fight for, then what is?