Dumbest idea he has ever heard adding defunding is the affordable care act is not achievable by shutting down the federal government. at some point, you re going to open the federal government back up and barack obama is going to be president. oh, dear. for more, we re joined by the washington editor for the national review, robert costa in washington and political analyst jonathan alter is here with me, the author of the center holds obama and his enemies. john, this idea of focusing on repealing or defunding the affordable care act, is this all part of john boehner s contention that congress should be judged not on the laws they passed but on the laws they repealed? you know, the thing that s so nutty about this is it s all in cloud quvenzhane land as republican senator burr said, obama s president. he s got the street toe pen. they don t have the votes to override the street toe.
So even democrats are kind of living in a time warp. they re so traumatized, some democrats that they think it s 2012, 2011. it s a fantasy. obama care is here to stay. there is nothing they can do to get rid of it. and so it s just a question of whether they want to face reality or not. this applies to a lot of their other cuts ending amtrak or closing basically defunding the fish and wildlife service. the list goes on and on and on. it makes for you know, nice talking points in republican primaries but it doesn t have anything to do with reality. robert, the rift over the affordable care act appears to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gop infighting. you wrote earlier this week about the rivalry between senators rand paul and ted cruz, both potential 2016 candidates, both of whom were in iowa last week. are we going to end up do you