But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about using reconciliation in connection with Obamacare. Perhaps the two worst things that Republicans could do via reconciliation in the current Congress would be to (a) use it to pass a repeal of Obamacare’s medical-device tax and/or employer mandate, since this would make the Republicans look preoccupied with corporations while making corporations less excited about full repeal; or (b) try to use it to repeal all of Obamacare, get an unfavorable ruling from the parliamentarian, and then quit. That would be counterproductive for the cause of repeal, as it would falsely suggest that reconciliation won’t work in 2017.

Fortunately, the great majority of Obamacare is clearly repealable via reconciliation. This includes its taxpayer-funded subsidies (of which the typical 20- or 30-something person making at least $35,000 doesn’t get a dime), its massive Medicaid expansion, its employer mandate (which would be fair game in the context of repealing all or most of the legislation), its tax hikes, its raid on Medicare funding (though some of this might have to be maintained for budgetary reasons), and its individual mandate. Wiping out all of these would effectively constitute repealing Obamacare — especially when one considers that Obamacare’s “preventive services” requirements (including the requirement that the abortion drug known as ella be provided for “free”) were merely decreed by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and could unilaterally be reversed by a Republican HHS secretary.