President Obama says he wants a grand bargain on the budget with no ideological “lines in the sand.” Yet he insists that the costliest and most controversial program in decades — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) — be taken off the table. That won’t fly. Congress should unwind the health law in three quick steps: freeze, investigate and replace.

Freeze: Even as evidence mounts that the law will damage American health care, the economy and the budget, the Obama administration is furiously issuing rules to ready the law’s government-centric architecture.