Government Shutdown: The Fight Is Win-Win for GOP

If they manage to extract a concession from Senate Democrats in exchange for voting to approve a continuing resolution to fund the government’s operations, then they’ve won. The House Republicans are asking for a repeal of Obamacare’s tax on medical devices and a one-year delay of the implementation of the health care law. If they get either one, they’ll have achieved something that they wouldn’t have achieved had they been as pliant as President Obama wanted.
And — here is the underappreciated point — if the Republicans fold and approve the spending bill without extracting any concessions from Democrats, then they’ve also won. Because in that case, Americans will actually get a chance to see for themselves what a train-wreck Obamacare is. If the law is really as bad as Republicans say it is, then as a political matter, what could be better for Republicans than voters finding out firsthand?
Polls have consistently shown the public’s attitude to Obamacare as skeptical verging on hostile. That’s based on opinion shaped in part by Republican descriptions of the law. If the real thing matches the scary scenario painted by Republican critics — or simply fails to live up to the utopia promised by President Obama and the Democrats — the politics of that should be great for the Republicans.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/09/30/government-shutdown-the-fight-is-win-win