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That is another thing we won: GOP is firmly entrenched on the side of trying to save people from Obamacare.

Meanwhile, Democrats in the senate are on record with votes for the following:
- shut down government rather than give people one year of tax relief for not buying insurance.
- shut down government rather than repeal an unpopular medical device tax
- keep the parks shut down rather than accepting a clean bill to open them.
- keep kids from getting medical treatment in order to exert political pressure for a “victory”.
- keep other parts of government closed rather than passing clean CRs for them, in order to “beat” the republicans, which Shumer now admits was the goal.
- Rejecting a long-term compromise because as they said they want to spend more money.

The only thing that would have been better would have been if, after the last embarrassing senate vote, the house would have had a major press conference, and said the following:

“Republicans know that the ACA is already causing major problems for our economy and for individuals, and the small good it achieves for some uninsured is far outweighed by the major harm it is doing and will do to the hundreds of millions of people who already had insurance. The administration has admitted they are not nearly ready to implement the law, as they illegally amend it by executive order time and again.

“So we fought for a simple one-year delay of the entire law, to give the government time to work out the problems, and the people time to express their opinions in the next election. Clearly, the other party has no interest in hearing from the people, as they soundly reject any slowdown or relief for their own constituents from this disastrous law.

“We have also tried to fund many parts of government that have nothing to do with health care, as we have tried to get the opposition party to listen to the American people and relieve them of the burden of paying punitive taxes for not buying insurance that is not ready for prime time. But the opposition party has rejected clean spending bills even for things they pretend to support, like children’s health care.

“It is clear now that the opposition’s love of their failing health insurance scheme is so great that there is no amount of harm they are unwilling to accept to the people they claim to serve in order to block even common-sense, widely supported changes to the law such as the repeal of a medical device tax.

“While we on the Republican side feel the pain of our constituents, and wish we could act by legislative fiat like the President so often pretends he has the power to do, we are limited in what we can accomplish, and to do what is right requires that the opposition in the senate think more about the people THEY represent than the special interests they support.

“If there was any chance that continuing the fight would convince the opposition to do what is right, it is clear they want only to “win” a political fight at all costs. And we are not willing to let the democrats do any more harm to the American people than they already have.

“So today, we are passing a 3-month extension of both the current spending levels and the debt ceiling. This will put our government back to work, and give the people three more months to express to the opposition party their outrage over the destruction of their health insurance plans and the economy.

“It is our firm hope that, with the passage of time, our colleagues in the other party will come to realize that the good of the country is more important than defending a flawed and failing health insurance scheme. We apologize to those of you already suffering the consequences of the ACA — we are sorry we do not have the votes, and do not have the ability, to fix this ourselves. We urge you to take action to let your representatives know what you want, to urge them to represent YOU rather than their party bosses, and if that does not work, to help us elect people in 2014 who will look out for your interests.

“Thank you, good night, and may God bless our country.”