A proposal by Republican Sen. Susan Collins that has been the subject of much discussion would include two proposals relating to Obamacare: 1) it would repeal the law’s medical device tax; and 2) it would require verification that people who receive subsidies under Obamacare are actually eligible to receive those subsidies. Both have widespread Republican support, and in another set of circumstances would pass easily. But neither has been sufficient, at least so far, to satisfy the Republicans who originally sought to defund Obamacare, and later sought to delay it for a year, and then later sought to delay the law’s individual mandate.

In their view, the entire Obamacare crusade has been about giving the American people relief from the health care plan’s burdens and mandates. Neither element of the Collins proposal would do that. While they would be fine in any other context, the defunders were willing to shut down the government to stop, or substantially slow, Obamacare, and neither Collins proposal would do that.

But still — given the pressures created by the partial government shutdown and the polls showing the damage it has done to the public’s opinion of Republicans — would Collins’ Obamacare plan give the defunders a fig leaf, a way to say they stood up for changes in Obamacare and won? Probably not. The feeling among at least some of the defunders is that they have not come this far just to surrender in exchange for a fig leaf. And that is before one considers the big question of whether President Obama would accept any version of the Collins proposal in the first place.