House GOP should stop acting like children

House GOP should stop acting like children

House Republicans are behaving like children threatening to shut down the government, especially when they have better options to move their agenda.

The House has passed a bill to keep the government funded at current levels after Sept. 30, less any funds for Obamacare. Senate Democrats will send it back to the House stripped of that provision, where it will likely fail.

Theoretically the government will run out of money; however, Uncle Sam will continue withholding taxes from paychecks and businesses must continue quarterly payments.

The president has authority to continue mandatory spending programs—Social Security and other benefits checks should go out— and to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life and property. The latter may embrace a pretty wide swath but if history is any guide, the president will engage in some juvenile behavior of his own.

During the early days of sequestration, he sullenly threatened public safety by not realigning funds to keep enough air traffic controllers and food inspectors on the job.

Draconian warnings that prison guards and cooks will not be paid reflect such conduct. Will he release the inmates at federal penitentiaries to avoid keeping and feeding them in their cells?

President Obama wants to run America like a banana republic—impose whatever laws he likes and reduce Congress to a compliant debating society.

The law has not gained legitimacy among the majority of Americans to the peril of Democrats. In states where Senate races will be highly contested this fall and in House districts leaning Republican or likely to be contested, a significant majority of independent voters oppose Obamacare.

Shutting down the government will spoil that potential GOP support—especially because the president is in a position to make such a shutdown as painful as possible.

Obamacare is already creating huge headaches. So much so that businesses have been exempted from the requirement to provide health insurance to employees for one year. The state and federal health insurance exchanges are simply not ready to provide accurate pricing and coverage information to individuals who must purchase coverage under the law. Labor unions that supported the law are asking for permanent exemptions, and employers like Starbucks are compelled by the law's rigid application to drop insurance coverage for part-time workers.

That would give Republicans a platform for next fall, but they cling to false notions that the health care system was just fine before Obamacare. Alas, it was not and remains much more expensive than the German and many other European systems that deliver universal coverage and better results.

Obstructionist threats and obstinance won't make the GOP a governing party again, and will result in the election of a more Democratic House, a continuing Democratic Senate and another Democratic president to succeed Obama.