U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn is an Oklahoma Republican who joins his GOP colleagues in hating the Affordable Care Act.
But the man also understands the consequences of shutting down the federal government to make a political point about ending what’s known as Obamacare.
Don’t do it, Sen. Coburn warns.
A government shutdown would destroy the Republican Party, he told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has this idea to quit operating the federal government if it results in getting rid of Obamacare. He’s been joined by some of the party firebrands, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Such a shutdown could occur later this year as the White House and congressional Republicans lock horns in their ongoing battle over federal spending.
Someone ought to remind Lee, Cruz and some of the other political pistols on the right that Congress enacted the ACA, which then withstood a challenge in the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled in June 2012 that the law is constitutional and it should stand.
Yet the foes persist time and again trying to get rid of a law they contend constitutes a federal overreach.
And now they’re threatening to shut the government down to make their point?
Quick. Put out a call to former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who also led a government shutdown in the 1990s. The shutdown helped doom Gingrich’s speakership.
What’s that saying about the consequences of ignoring the lessons of history?