Politics / health care reform 5 Reasons the GOP Should Back Off Health Bill Why the 'repeal' campaign is a loser for Republicans By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff Posted Mar 23, 2010 12:20 PM CDT Copied House Minority Leader John Boehner, left, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, speak to the media outside the White House, Feb. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) 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.) Report an error