But rank-and-file Republicans should resist.

The AHCA — in its present form, anyway — isn’t what Republicans campaigned on. It isn’t a meaningful, or conservative, fix for Obamacare’s many problems. And congressional Republicans should know better than to go down this road again, after narrowly passing, in 2003, President George W. Bush’s flawed Medicare Part D prescription drug entitlement, just for the sake of notching a legislative win.

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On Tuesday, President Trump went to Capitol Hill to make his case for the AHCA. Before that, Ryan gave a PowerPoint presentation extolling the AHCA’s virtues. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price made the talk-show rounds. Congress hasn’t seen a full-court press like this on the Republican side of the aisle since 2003, when, to get Medicare D passed, a unified White House and GOP leadership coaxed, twisted arms and, in at least one case, literally cornered one member to get the votes they needed for passage. But ultimately, what did they win?

The Medicare drug benefit started out as a fine idea — a limited program to assist seniors struggling to afford prescription drugs. Then Congress got to work on the plan and larded it up until it was a bloated new entitlement. After a long night and early morning of legislative wrangling, it passed on its initial House vote — barely, 216-215 — after a handful of Republicans were persuaded to switch their votes from nay to aye.

The most important takeaway, however, isn’t that the legislation eventually became law, but what happened to the 25 stalwart GOP House members who voted no, months later, on final passage.

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Four of them — Jim DeMint, Jeff Flake, Jerry Moran, Pat Toomey — would later be elected to the United States Senate. Twelve would serve at least three more House terms. Standing up to party leadership wasn’t fatal, and in many instances, these members were rewarded by voters for standing on principle.

The most notable member of this group? Vice President Pence. The leader of the House Republican Study Committee at the time, Sue Myrick, had been persuaded to support the legislation, but that didn’t stop then-Congressman Pence, also a Study Committee member, from standing firm and opposing the legislation. He became a conservative hero as a result.

Several months later, in his keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Pence described the conundrum he and other conservatives had faced with that vote: “House conservatives faced a difficult choice: oppose the president we love, or support the expansion of the big government we hate.” A conservative champion in Washington, Pence became House Republican Conference chair in 2009, Indiana’s governor in 2013, and vice president of the United States this year.

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Today, top Republican staffers are saying the AHCA will pass the House because getting something done today polls better than good policy. Indeed, the easy path in the short term is to support this legislation, even if it keeps alive the beating heart of Obamacare. It does just enough to let members check the box on a campaign promise and stay on the good foot with the White House and on the same page with leadership.

That’s the short-term view, which ignores the bill’s fatal flaws, leaves the architecture of Obamacare in place and ensures that health insurance premiums remain far too high. But the Medicare D story reinforces the long-term view that good policy is good politics. Conservatives can, and should, prevent this bill from passing in its current form, to fix its fatal flaws. But whether or not they can stop it, taking a stand for a principled position that helps ensure the success of a free-market approach to our health-care system will be rewarded by Republican voters.

After seven years, it makes sense that House Republicans are eager to take action that undoes Obamacare. And it makes sense that with majorities in the House and Senate, Republican members want to do their part to help move the president’s agenda forward. But that goal doesn’t override their obligation to vote for legislation that is genuinely conservative in its approach and that will truly serve Americans. Their constituents didn’t send them to Washington just to be a rubber-stamp for a Republican president. Part of a congressional lawmaker’s job is recognizing when the administration is steering off course and helping it sail true.

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