As Kathryn noted yesterday, House Republican leader John Boehner is already talking about repealing the Democrats’ financial-regulation bill. While I commend Boehner for opposing the legislation, I hope other Republicans don’t join this bandwagon. While I don’t accept the conventional wisdom that repealing Obamacare is impossible, it is certainly going to be difficult. It is highly, highly unlikely that Republicans will be able to repeal two of the Democrats’ recent major pieces of legislation. If Republicans promise to repeal several laws, they will reduce the likelihood that they will repeal any of them.

A few other points worth considering. First, the financial-regulation bill isn’t as bad as the health-care legislation–it even has some good points. Second, the bill wasn’t passed in the manner the health-care bill was. No state re-wrote its laws to enable it to get a 60th vote, and public sentiment wasn’t against it. For both of these reasons, I think it makes more sense for conservatives to try to modify the legislation in the future–replacing its worst parts, dealing with Fannie and Freddie, etc.–than to try to repeal it.