Republican health-care attack shifts from defund to delay

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act possesses the unique ability to bring the fragmented GOP together while simultaneously carving deeper strategic divides between established party leaders and upcoming stars. Nowhere is an example more glaring than with the fringe effort to defund PPACA by holding budget negotiations hostage. That effort may be losing steam as pragmatists within the party begin to regain a foothold and press for a delay rather than an effort to defund. There will, however, be consequences.