Are Republicans Finally Facing ACA Reality?

As state run Affordable Care Act marketplaces continue to work efficiently, and as the federal exchange has been improved and is working better, more and more people are signing up for health care.  Without an alternative plan of their own, some Republicans have begun to see that by continuing their anti-ACA fight, they are essentially telling people that they want to take away that protection...a losing argument to carry into next year's mid-term election.

Even House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been reluctant to schedule any more votes to repeal the law in the House' chamber.  

what eye thynk:   Are we finally seeing the end of this wasteful fight? Some Republicans seem to be acknowledging that to continue is not in their best interest.

• Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Georgia) who is running for the U.S. Senate, while not supporting the ACA,  seems to agree that continuing the overt fight is a waste of time: "A lot of conservatives say, 'Nah, let's just step back and let this thing fall to pieces on its own.'"
• Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who won election in 2010 on an anti-ACA platform: "We've got to start talking about transitioning...Am I opposed to state based exchanges? No.  It may be that they can be usuable...I'm all for repeal, but...we've got to start talking about the reality of the situation."
• Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Virginia) admitted that "some Americans'  lives have gotten better" and to ignore this fact is to "deny reality."
• Jon Chait, New York magazine writer pointed out "that conservatives deeply miscalculated" in their anti-ACA fight.  Even Ted Cruz's speechwriter, Amanda Carpenter was recently quoted as saying "I don't want to be uninsured."

In the early months of their three year fight to repeal "Obamacare", Republicans claimed to have ideas for a better plan.  If this were true, why not make them public?  If they thought they could do better, why didn't they? Because that "better plan" didn't exist.  Their claim was good rhetoric, but in reality it was nothing more than a sound byte created out of wishful thinking and sour grapes.

Imagine where we, as a country, would be right now if the Republican Party had focused the same energy they expended on fighting the ACA on instead creating a simpler, more efficient plan of their own.  A single payer alternative maybe? The budget savings in managing a single payer system over the complicated and convoluted law we have would undoubtedly be substantial. And isn't saving money what the Republican Party is supposed to be all about?  By putting all their energy into dismantling what already existed instead of creating what could have been, they repudiated one of their own core political principles--reduce government spending.

I can't help but wonder, had the Republican Party worked for their own version of universal health care instead of simply against the existing health care law, would we have seen more "Yes, we can" and less "No, we won't"--more progress instead of three years of political inertia? 

And, here's a really pleasant thought:  The only Tea Party in our history just might have been the one in Boston in 1773.