What Today's Headlines on Obamacare Should Be

It's a shame. This should be a day of excitement and hope. Today we implement a health care law that will cut the number of uninsured Americans by 25 to 30 million. A law that prevents denial of coverage for preexisting conditions. A law that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, will reduce the federal deficit over time. A law tested in Mitt Romney's Massachusetts and full of provisions recommended by the conservative Heritage Foundation as recently as the early '90s. A law most of us should be able to get behind.

Sure, it's not perfect. So we implement it and work out the kinks as they are revealed in practice. We make it better. We don't shut down the government because a minority of lawmakers dislike it in principle. That's not how our democracy works.

Obamacare is about helping poor and middle class people get insurance. That's what it's for. That's what it does. The ideologues of the Right, who compare their childish escapades on Capitol Hill to the heroism of Flight 93 (I'm looking at you, John Culberson) need to stand down. You failed to convince Americans last year that Obamacare should be repealed, and lost the presidential election. It's time to move on. Fund the government, fix the postal service, pass a farm bill. Do some work.