A successful political campaign is one thing. Successful governing is another. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives does not seem to see the difference.

Their obsession with obstructing and overturning the Affordable Health Care Act has all the earmarks of politics and none of the indications of reasonable governance. House action on critical legislation languishes while House Republicans struggle to kill an imaginary devil.

Republicans refuse to work on a budget compromise and other matters including a critical farm bill, but four separate House committees are holding “hearings” on the Affordable Health Care Act. The result of failure to reach a compromise agreement on the farm bill would end stabilized food prices.

Worse, Republicans insist that any farm bill must cut $40 billion in food stamps for the hungry poor over the next decade.

One would expect even conservative Republicans to avoid being responsible for a significant increase in hunger in America. That the perceived plague of “devil Obamacare” can overwhelm concern for the plague of hunger is hard to believe!

Republican petulance and obstruction, in an effort to reverse healthcare reform, might be defensible if not for the fact that initial rollout problems are being corrected and President Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act is already proving to be successful.

On Dec. 3, 2013 the business section of The New York Times reported the following: “(T)he Affordable Care Act is beating expectations: its cost. Over the next few years the government is expected to spend billions of dollars less than originally projected…Medicaid expansion and the subsidies for private insurance plans ending up less expensive than anticipated.”

It’s time for House Republicans to take off their blinders and stop this destructive crusade. It is a crusade that should not, and cannot, be won. But it is a battle that can cause every citizen of the United States to lose.