The time to "oppose it" has passed. Facts are that the ACA is law. It was passed by one branch, signed by another and found Constitutional by a third. The prez ran on it twice, and easily won both times. You have an issue with a law, use the legislative process, don't cause heartache for Federal employees in a Quixotic bid to undermine it. And the party that shut down the government has started moving on from it being about ACA, which should tell you how much to take them seriously.
The idea that one small faction of one of our two parties would negatively affect the US economy, costing us millions per day is insane.
And this is not about the Dems or the Pres-it's about fighting within the GOP.
Also, passing a modified CR makes sense, not for "legitimizing", but because the numerous changes made (most with bipartisan support), have changed funding requirements.
First, the president won both times because enough people thought that Obamacare meant free health insurance. It was strategically not implemented until his second term. People are just now figuring out how high the rates are for the government option since the prices were finally released this week, and they're generally not happy about it. Turns out that their concept of "poverty" is not the same as Uncle Sam's.
Secondly, the Republicans took over the House precisely because Obamacare was unpopular in many districts.
Finally, Obama modified the law on his own with no input from Congress since it was signed in 2011. Last I checked, he's not supposed to be able to do that. He unilaterally delayed the employer mandate.
The only things the last bill passed by the House, passed on Sep 30, did to Obamacare is delay the individual mandate to coincide with the employer mandate, repeal Congressional subsidies, and repeal the extra medical supply tax. It didn't de-fund Obamacare at all, nor would it prevent the executive branch from proceeding with creating the government option. This resolution was rejected by the Senate strictly along party lines. The latest resolution is wrongfully being reported by many media outlets as "delaying the implementation of Obamacare for a year." If the Democrats had any sense in them, they would have supported this plan because the executive branch is way behind in creating the infrastructure required to support the new law, but they think playing politics and standing firm is more important.
So basically the GOP in the House moved from its original position on Sep 20 to completely defund Obamacare, to a fairly reasonable bill that the Democrats refuse to even talk about, probably because they're being told by the administration and Democrat party leaders not to put POTUS into the awkward position of signing a bill that un-does his executive orders or vetoing the budget outright.
If the GOP wanted to play politics, they should hang back and watch this abomination of a law blow up in the Democrat's face. But that would be a lot worse for Americans than a couple weeks of paid vacation for GSes and closing down some national parks.
In the meantime, congrats John Q. Public on having a new mandatory $500+/mo bill to pay for insurance that covers half your medical costs, even if you only make $9/hour, and your employer is cutting your hours so he doesn't have to provide an alternative.
PS: Let's also not forget that we wouldn't be in this silly situation 3 years in a row if the President didn't sign that sequestriation bill into effect in 2011.
