On the House vote to repeal

Repealing/disabling/deconstructing Obamacare is the single greatest task confronting the Republican Party. Obamacare represents the nationalization of the greatest health care system in the world and a terrible threat to American freedom. The House vote to repeal Obamacare is a first step, but I don’t think we’ll be reading much analysis of the House vote in the mainstream media. At the Weekly Standard, Jeffrey Anderson considers the meaning of the House vote:

Reflecting the clear and strongly held views of the vast majority of Americans, the House has voted overwhelmingly to repeal ObamaCare.
Last March, the House voted to pass ObamaCare by a tally of 219 to 212 — a margin of 7 votes; today it voted to repeal ObamaCare by a tally of 245 to 189 — a margin of 56 votes. Ten months ago, the vote was 51 percent to 49 percent — a margin of 2 percentage points; today it was 56 percent to 44 percent — a margin of 12 percentage points. So the margin for repeal was 49 votes and 10 percentage points bigger than the margin for passage.
Many have described this as being merely a symbolic vote. But, in truth, the 112th House will never pass a more important bill. It seems quite strange, moreover, that anyone would ever call legislation to repeal a 2,700-page law, which also happens to be the President’s centerpiece initiative, anything other than substantive.
Now the repeal bill will advance to the Democratic Senate, where senators will have the chance to respond to the people’s will by voting yes, voting no, or refusing even to hold a vote. Their choice, too, will be substantive — and will say a lot about the current composition of that body.
But before transferring our thoughts too much to the Senate, let us take a moment to appreciate what has happened today in the House: Less than ten months after ObamaCare’s passage, the repeal movement has notched its first legislative victory!
Moreover, this victory will give Republicans momentum. In the days and weeks to come, they will work to defund ObamaCare. They will conduct oversight hearings on such matters as the Obama administration’s misuse of taxpayer money to promote ObamaCare. And, most of all, they will advance serious Republican alternatives to this unprecented threat to limited government, fiscal solvency, and liberty. In short, Republicans have voted to repeal perhaps the most contentious legislation in generations. They will now showcase the sorts of real reform that should take its place.

Let me repeat myself on this point. Putting Obamacare out of its misery is the critical mission that must be carried out be Republicans in the coming years. And let me repeat the question Lincoln asked regarding Douglas’s professed indifference to slavery: “I ask you in all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this Government into a government of some other form.”