MEGAN MCARDLE: The Republican Plan Is Even Worse Than Obamacare.

It will not, for example, make the looming possibility of a “death spiral” in the individual market any less possible, and indeed may make it more likely. Passing this bill would certainly ensure that Republicans will 100 percent own any ensuing death spiral, and will have little luck whining that it was gonna death spiral anyway, because Obamacare. In other words, even if we leave aside any policy effects, this bill will be a disaster for the long-term political fortunes of the Republican Party.

It’s tempting to blame short-sighted Republican leadership, so focused on getting a point on the board that they’re not considering whether the sacrifices they need to get that point might end up costing them the game. But it’s not even clear that this scores any short-term political points.

Heritage Action, Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity — three of the biggest groups that Republicans will need to help them whip their right flank into voting for this thing — have all come out hard against it. Avik Roy and Michael Cannon, two of the leading opponents of Obamacare in the policy community, have both panned it. You’re not exactly seeing enthusiastic cheers from the journalists who opposed Affordable Care Act, of which I am one. See? This is me, emphatically not cheering. If such a thing is possible, I am actively failing to cheer.

And:

That’s if the House Republicans can pass this. And frankly I doubt they can. Twenty-four hours ago, I was beginning to think that Republicans were going to ram something dumb through just to be able to say they’d done something. I don’t think they could get this through with the world’s largest battering ram and a million Visigoths to man it.

Ouch.