Setbacks for Affordable Care Act Repeal

The OMB has dug into the CBO's projections for the Affordable Care Act, and they're pretty pleased with what they see. I'm going to quote the analysis, but if you just want to read one line, the ACA wipes out about a quarter to a third of our long-term deficit -- and that's in the nasty scenario, where we continue things like the Bush tax cuts and the Medicare doc fixes.

I’m 100 percent on board with Jon Chait’s argument that there’s no reason to think that abandoning the Affordable Care Act would have improved Democrats’ political standing heading into the midterms. Insofar as ACA is unpopular, that’s largely a consequence of the general decline in public esteem for the party currently overseeing a grinding recession.

Ross Douthat urges that conservatives try to take a more constructive tack on modifying the Affordable Care Act than the current mantra of repeal it or defund it:

This guest column by Secretary Locke was published in the Seattle Times on Friday.**********WHEN Republicans vote next week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they are voting to repeal a new level of control that American families have over their health-care decisions. They are also voting to make American businesses less competitive in the global economy. Because just 10 months after its passage, the act has brought badly needed change to the American health-care system. The law: • Prevents children with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage; • Eliminates lifetime caps on the dollar amount insurance companies will spend on enrollees' benefits, like cancer treatment; • Allows children to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they are 26; • Gives tax credits to small businesses to help them afford health care for their employees; and • Takes meaningful steps to lower costs and improve the quality of health care for all Americans But from my perspective as U.S. commerce secretary, one of the most important benefits of the law is that it will make American businesses more competitive by reining in rapidly increasing health-care costs. As President Obama has noted: "We are in a fierce competition among nations for the jobs and industries of the future." The Affordable Care Act will allow American businesses, large and small, to improve their performance against foreign competitors, most of whom have significantly lower health-care costs. The cost savings are real, and they will grow over time.

Kate Zernicke reports on a quixotic movement that’s apparently gaining support inside the conservative establishment, including Eric Cantor: