Not at all. While they were supposed to be fighting Obamacare tooth and nail, they were instead dealing with insurance company donors who found ways to profit from it. Instead of refusing to fund it in the HOR, they said "let's use it as a campaign issue so we can get majority in both the HOR and US Senate". They got those majorities, and screwed us with the new "let's fix Obamacare".
You can't fix it or replace it. We need leaders who will articulate a free-market solution. Instead you've got millions more people dependent on Medicare. From what I've seen, most people who get tangled up in Medicare never find their way back into productive self-sufficient lives. We wanted freedom from government interference in our lives; instead the Republicans gave us fascism.
How can you defend these backstabbers? The 'pubs enabled Obamacare. And PS: never forget that GWB expanded federal interference by providing Medicare Part D, the pharmaceutical option for seniors. That should never have been anything but private plans.
I think we are talking about two different things.
The article points to the failure of Hillarycare, which failed in 1993. It tries to argue that Newt Gingrich & Co. should have jumped in and proposed a “fix” to health care in order to own the issue.
I argue that would not be in keeping with Conservative principles.
The corrupt GOP backstabbing over Obamacare, two decades hence, is a separate issue. (other than obviously that is a much more egregious example of violating Conservative principles).
We need leaders who aren't beholden to the corporations who fund them. Conservatives are stingy. We are getting the government we are unwilling to pay for. But somebody else surely is, and it's costing us a bundle.