John Graham of the Pacific Research Institute writes:

[Government-run] exchanges are the vehicles through which the gusher of cash from Obamacare’s tax hikes will be laundered into subsidies to favored health plans, payments to vendors and consultants, and salaried jobs for political appointees. …

[Representative Amy Stephens & other supporters of Colorado SB11-200]  believe they can blunt the worst effects of the Obamacare exchange if Republicans have some input into the bill.

This is wishful thinking. Section 1311(k) of PPACA states: “An Exchange may not establish rules that conflict with or prevent the application of regulations promulgated by the Secretary under this subtitle.” If Obamacare is not repealed by 2014, Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. Secretary of Heath & Human Services, will ramp up a regulatory bureaucracy that will quickly breach Colorado’s legislative defenses. …

Collaboration confuses the commitment to repeal. Surely it is far better that the governor be forced to implement Obamacare unilaterally — as best [Gov. Hickenlooper] can — under strict oversight from anti-Obamacare House committees of jurisdiction.

Republican state politicians in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, and other states have killed exchanges because they do not want to see President Obama campaigning on Obamacare’s faux flexibility and responsiveness — as would have been demonstrated by bipartisan state legislation to implement it.

It’s not too late for Majority Leader Stephens to make the same decision for Colorado.

Read the whole article at National Review Online: Colorado Republicans for Obamacare?.