Afternoon Must-Read: Brian Buetler: WSJ Obamacare editorial supports ACA fixes, slams conservative critics

Brian Buetler: WSJ Obamacare editorial supports ACA fixes, slams conservative critics: “We know that GOP leaders are suddenly, tepidly, willing to allow…

…minor, bipartisan improvements to Obamacare to clear the House of Representatives. But for the party’s shift away from an obstinance-only strategy to evolve into something more substantial—something that really undermines the repeal fantasy—influential voices within the conservative tent are going to have to pressure hardliners…. The Wall Street Journal editors picked today to attack the GOP members who are furious about party leaders doing anything at all to facilitate implementation of the law:

[S]ome conservatives have become so politically disoriented by ObamaCare that preserving its mistakes is more important than helping Americans hurt by the law. The theory seems to be that “improving” ObamaCare will weaken the coalition for repeal and therefore the economic torture dials should be turned up to 11. If the law is more punitive and dysfunctional, more people will want to get rid of it in toto. But… rooting for voters to be harmed is not a helpful electoral coping strategy. A better political strategy is to offer an agenda going into the 2014 election that addresses the damage ObamaCare is doing to the individual and small-business insurance markets until a larger fix is possible….

The conservative position is slowly shifting from repeal and replace, to replace and repeal. Much like you’d never tear down a structurally weak bridge without first building a sound one parallel to it, the right has awakened to the fact that Obamacare can’t be scrapped on the basis of a promise to clean up the incredible mess sometime in the future…. Count it as progress of a sort…