During an impromptu moment in the third hour of a recent nationally syndicated radio show, three doctors, practicing three different specialties, located in three different areas of the country, called to bemoan the future of their profession under ObamaCare. They spoke about how doctors are being driven from private practice into hospital practices by disparate reimbursement rates because hospital groups are easier for the government to control. They spoke about how hospitals are given financial incentives to reduce care to patients in a method similar to the unpopular HMO model of care promoted by the Clinton administration. They spoke about how increased electronic record keeping burdens are meant to calibrate and manage patient care so as to reduce the cost of care to the government rather than improve the quality of outcomes. Remember when Dr Obama told you to take the blue pill instead of the red pill? One doctor even spoke about how the Veterans Administration denies hip and knee replacements to young veterans. Since the "shelf life" of a prosthetic hip is 10-15 years, a young veteran would require more than one during the course of his lifetime.

This is occurring under the backdrop of rising private health-insurance premiums, rising Medicare premiums, businesses large and small dropping full-time employees so as to minimize their health insurance burden under ObamaCare, reports that 3/4 of policyholders could be hit by massive taxes on "Cadillac" health plans, labor unions relinquishing support for ObamaCare and liberal media cheerleaders worrying that the failure to implement health insurance exchanges might turn the public against ObamaCare even further as the cost of creating these exchanges continues to rise. An author of ObamaCare in the United States Senate worried recently about a coming "train wreck!" even as President Obama proclaimed that most people are "already experiencing most of the benefits of the [Un]Affordable Care Act, even if they don't know it." These "benefits" include the loss of care for subsidized enrollees in California's health insurance exchange, Covered California. Enrollees must not like their doctors very much because many will not be allowed to keep them!

Yet, rather than running for the hills allowing the Democrats that championed ObamaCare's passage to wear it as an albatross around their necks, Republican "leaders" in Congress seek to strengthen ObamaCare while simultaneously negotiating to exempt themselves and their staffs from its effects. In a moment of obvious frustration, Chip Roy, Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Cruz, suggested in a private email leaked to an online newspaper, "The message [stinks]! We oppose ObamaCare. Period. We will repeal it. Period."

During this era of prolonged high unemployment where nearly 10 million Americans have left the workforce, it has become clear that even if Congress or the Obama administration were to grant an individual or a group an exemption from the mandates of ObamaCare, there is no escaping its effects on the broader economy. Yet, rather than concentrating their efforts on plans to scale back ObamaCare or directing voters' attention to all of the ill effects that it will bring, many Republicans in Congress are focused on immigration reform proposals that were not a focal point of the recent election and barely which 5% of the electorate consider important. Considering that the cost of ObamaCare continues to be revised upward and the federal debt approaches $17 trillion dollars, voters are puzzled as to why many Republicans are laboring to pass a $6 trillion boondoggle instead of fighting to scale back Obama's nearly $2 trillion health insurance mess!

Given this administration's recurring difficulty embracing the truth, it is amazing that Republicans do not push back more forcefully and more often against President Obama's attempts to 'fundamentally transform' America. Chip Roy is incorrect. The Republican message does not stink. It is nonexistent.