Now that the repeal of the health-care reform of 2010 has failed, it is time for Republicans in Congress to redirect their efforts towards more constructive projects. The repeal — ridiculously titled the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” — was rejected by the Senate on Wednesday, following a successful vote in the House of Representatives on Jan. 19. The bill was doomed to fail from the outset considering the democratic majority in the Senate and the persisting party divide over the issue of health care reform.

The Republicans were no doubt aware that the bill would not pass when they introduced it last month. It is likely that it was intended as a symbolic rebellion against Obamacare more than as a genuine attempt to modify health care policy. Having ridden into office on a wave of anti-Obama sentiment in the midterm elections, the GOP House majority is no doubt putting on a show for the Tea Party supporters that helped to put them there.

The next act in the drama will likely be a Republican challenge of the constitutionality of health care reform. On Monday, a U.S. District Judge in Florida ruled the health care law unconstitutional and declared it entirely void. One other federal judge has ruled against the health care law; two federal judges have ruled in favor of it. Since the Department of Justice has stated its intent to appeal the most recent ruling, it seems likely that the case will go to the Supreme Court.

Most of the dispute about the constitutionality of the law centers on the “individual mandate,” which fines people who do not purchase health insurance. But opponents of health care reform are not only attacking the individual mandate — rather the mandate serves as an excuse to undermine the entire law, including many of its provisions that are beneficial and popular.

By focusing so much effort on tearing down the current health care reform and so little on developing an alternative, Republicans are ultimately doing themselves, not to mention the American public, a disservice. While the health care law itself may have garnered some public disapproval, many of its individual provisions are quite popular. For example, the law offers tax credits to small businesses that provide their employees with coverage, prohibits discrimination against children with pre-existing conditions, extends coverage for young people up to 26 years of age through their parents’ insurance and bans lifetime and annual limits on coverage. All of these are supported provisions that constitute a great step forward for healthcare in the U.S. The millions of people depending on these stipulations would be adversely affected if the implementation of the health care law was halted due to a dispute over the constitutionality of the individual mandate.

Furthermore, many of the Republicans’ complaints about the health care law are far less legitimate than the concerns about the individual mandate. The allegation that the health care law is “job-killing” is highly dubious and is supported only by a  single report which seriously misrepresents the Congressional Budget Office’s statements about the law and a National Federation of Independent Business study, which was not even a study of the law in question.

Yet the Republicans continue to contend that the law is not only “job-killing” but also “budget-busting”. Regarding this objection, the Congressional Budget Office has stated that repealing the health care law will actually deepen the federal deficit by $230 billion over the next ten years. So much for balancing the budget.

The GOP has the potential to perform an important function as the House majority party. By insisting on fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget, Republicans could keep the Democrats’ spending in check while pressuring the Obama administration to be financially responsible. This is not the function that they have performed thus far, however.

The current GOP is behaving as a contrarian party. They are more interested in shooting down the existing health care law than in building up a new one, and while the Democrats were willing to make numerous sacrifices in their original formulation of the health care bill, the Republicans have shown little willingness to make the same kinds of compromises. Moving forward, the GOP would do well to abandon the political theater and adopt a more pragmatic attitude towards not only health care reform, but policy in general.

William (Nick) Parrott is a junior in the College.