I always thought that for any negotiations to succeed both sides have to have something that is "negotiable." For the Republicans in Congress to hold the president's Affordable Health Care Act hostage to the stopping, defunding and/or dismantling of "Obamacare," is ludicrous. It's simply not going to happen. Why would the president agree to harm or kill the crowning achievement of his presidency? It's tantamount to asking him to kill his "baby." It simply is non-negotiable — and the Republicans know it! However, like Melville's tortured, monomaniacal Captain Ahab, they seem compelled against all reason to pursue and kill the Great White Whale of Obamacare, regardless of the cost to themselves or others. Let's hope that we won't all be taken down with their doomed ship Pequod.
Michael E. Britt
Columbia