When it comes to the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, apparently there is no end to partisan political sniping in Washington even when the casualties include one's own voters beyond the Beltway. Last month, five senior Senate and House Republicans fired a broadside at a heretofore relatively noncontroversial provision of the Affordable Care Act, one that provides federal start-up loans to qualified organizations across the country to establish health insurance cooperatives. The co-ops could be an appealing nonprofit alternative for individuals and small businesses, many owned, it is reasonable to say, by Republican-leaning entrepreneurs. These small-business job creators, lacking the bargaining power of big companies, have been saddled with double-digit health- insurance rate increases in recent years by for-profit insurance companies.