Bruce Bartlett, another sane conservative, sees Republican over-reach and indiscipline in the next two years leading to both a real danger of national default, a second government shut-down, and a House majority, unlike 1994, unable to be controlled by anyone:
I hope I am wrong, but I don’t see any prospect of meaningful action by a Republican Congress that would reduce the deficit, and much reason to think it will get worse if they have their way by enacting massive new tax cuts while protecting Medicare from cuts. And as I have previously warned, I am very fearful that it will be impossible to raise the debt limit, which would bring about a default and real, honest-to-God bankruptcy something many Tea Party-types have openly called for in an insane belief that this will somehow or other impose fiscal discipline on out-of-control government spending without forcing them to vote either for spending cuts or tax increases.
Some Republicans delude themselves that they can enact legislation that will reduce the deficit on their terms 100 percent spending cuts with no increase in taxes.
In particular, every Republican believes that the Affordable Care Act adds massively to the deficit, despite repeated statements from the Congressional Budget Office and Medicare’s actuaries to the contrary which means that repeal would be scored by CBO as adding to the deficit.
In any case, repeal is impossible for two reasons. First, President Obama would surely veto such legislation and Republicans will not have anywhere close to the votes to override. (That would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate.) Second, even if Democrats lose the Senate, they will unquestionably have enough votes to filibuster whatever Republicans hope to accomplish in this regard. (Republicans would need 60 votes to block a filibuster.)