The following is reprinted from the Family Research Council.

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The groundhog wasn’t the only one making predictions yesterday. After Wednesday’s health care vote, most everyone began forecasting an even longer winter for Democrats. With Republicans determined to keep fighting, liberals watched ObamaCare cast its long shadow over the next two years, threatening to obscure everything they do. In Wednesday’s 51-47 result, Democrats have guaranteed two things: first, that ObamaCare will continue to be an irritant to their overall agenda; and secondly, that voters are more convinced than ever that the Left doesn’t take them seriously.

With the exception of one or two Senators, the GOP knew how this vote would pan out. But even in defeat, Republicans didn’t leave the roll call empty-handed. The GOP has something today that it didn’t have last week–every single Senate Democrat on record admitting that they haven’t learned from their mistakes. Not one of them listened to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) plea to reconsider. “…[W]e have an opportunity today, an opportunity for all those who supported the health law, it’s an opportunity to reevaluate your vote, to listen to your constituents who are desperately trying to get your attention. You can say perhaps this was a mistake, we can do this better, or you can continue to dismiss the majority of the people in this country as not knowing what they’re talking about. It’s not every day you get a second chance on a big decision after you know all the facts. Today is one of those days.”

It was the Left’s $2.5 trillion do-over. And not one of them seized it. Unfortunately for them, the same results in Congress often mean the same ones in the ballot box. Only this time, voters will have the weight of 28 state lawsuits on their side and 38 state legislatures, all fighting to water down the law.

In the meantime, let’s hope Republicans don’t take the bait to “fix” it. As part of Wednesday’s business, the GOP also voted to repeal a provision in ObamaCare called the 1099. It’s an unpopular part of the law that requires businesses to file more paperwork on their health care expenses. Both parties wanted to eliminate it. Yesterday, by a vote of 81-17, they did. But not everyone was happy about it. As I said yesterday, the fewer “improvements” Congress makes to the law, the better. “Tinkering with ObamaCare undermines both the lawsuit against ObamaCare and the effort for full repeal,” Erick Erickson wrote on RedState. “…[D]oing this, instead of keeping the pain in place until ObamaCare is repealed, makes the pain less and less. And as the pain becomes less and less… it becomes less and less likely that ObamaCare will actually get repealed.” The bill is so full of “painful” and oppressive measures, that only full repeal and starting again will guarantee a more constitutional process.

Apparently, some Republicans aren’t getting that message. Sens. John Barrasso (Wy.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), both well-intentioned, have introduced legislation to allow states opt-out of the individual mandate portion of the health care law. If it succeeds, the biggest constitutional barrier to ObamaCare will be destroyed, and the next court will hang the law like an albatross around America’s neck.

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