Los Angeles Times: GOP is Holding Government Hostage Over Obamacare

"The inconvenient truth for the GOP is that 'defunding Obamacare,' as the House tried to do, wouldn't stop most of the major provisions of the healthcare law, some of which have already gone into effect."

House Republicans' irresponsible brinkmanship may finally lead to the government shutdown that some of its members have been coveting since they took control of that chamber in 2011. This time, though, the fight hasn't been a battle over spending on federal agencies. It's been a symbolic one over the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. And it's been a sham.