Rep. Trey Radel laughed at a reporter when asked if he thought some in the conference might attempt to defund the law as part of the budget negotiations. When he stopped chuckling, Radel said that the president pushing to delay parts of the law on his own gives some validation to the Republican position.

“We cant do that, it’s not going to be defunded. But President Obama is doing what we asked for from the beginning. President Obama exemplifies why Democrats shut down the government, not Republicans. All we asked for was everything the president is doing right now,” he said. “Make it fair, delay it. Right now America is looking at this and saying wow, maybe Republicans were right.”

South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford said the Obamacare news, and the administration’s proposed fix, “lays validity to a point a number of different folks tried to make at the time of the shutdown.”

“I think it gives legitimacy to the Republicans at that time,” he said.