5 Reasons the GOP Should Back Off Health Bill

Republicans will stop banging the “repeal” drums if they know what’s good for them, Jay Newton-Small writes in Time, listing the reasons it’s risky for conservatives to keep health care front-and-center.

• No one’s actually going to kill grandma. What happens when the doomsday scenarios they've been spreading don’t materialize? Most of the bill won’t even be online until 2014—quite the anticlimax.

• Repeal is virtually impossible. And if they don’t manage it before 2014, are they really going to strip 32 million Americans of coverage?
• The reconciliation bill has things Republicans like. Why fight amendments that will reduce the deficit, end the Cornhusker Kickback, and crack down on Medicare and Medicaid waste, among other things?
• The court challenges will fail. Medicaid and Medicare have been challenged a zillion times, and they're still operating in all 50 states.
• They’ll keep that “Party of No” label. After Jim Bunning’s disastrous filibuster, Democrats say they’re kind of hoping Republicans try another one.

(More health care reform stories.)