There’s a turtle on the loose in the Senate, and his name is Mitch McConnell.

Turtles typically are not dangerous critters, but McConnell has a secret weapon when dealing with his enemies: his shell. This shell is made up of the new Republican majority in the Senate, and with it, McConnell is now considered the most powerful Republican in the country.

McConnell lives and breathes politics, and it shows. Though his passion is admirable, the way he goes about issues is not, and his extreme dislike of Obama is disappointing to say the least. Even his own party members are having a problem with him because of the way he wants to go about tackling issues such as repealing the Affordable Care Act. This problem facing McConnell was addressed in a recent Washington Post article titled, “Mitch McConnell’s mission: Degrade and destroy the Obama presidency.”

The title of that article says it all about McConnell. After the Republican sweep of the Senate on election night, Congress seemed to be finally willing to talk, Obama even called Republican winners to congratulate them. But that mindset was just smoke and mirrors. The day after elections, when the confetti settled and hangovers were taken care of, that sense of possible collaboration was crushed.

One of McConnell’s big goals is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare” as it has unfortunately become known. McConnell’s Senate website gives a nice, little quote from him stating, “… [Senate Republicans] intend to continue the fight to repeal and replace Obamacare with sensible reforms that would lower the cost of American health care … This fight isn’t over, so I hope you’ll stay in the fight with us.”

This is coming from a man whose own state, Kentucky, uses the Affordable Care Act, but under a different name, Kynect, that has actually been successful. McConnell cannot stand this, of course, and has vowed to stop it in Kentucky. This is a problem because, in a news conference on April 22, Kentucky’s democratic governor Steve Beshear announced that 413,410 Kentuckians signed up for health care through Kynect during its first open enrollment period from Oct. 1, 2013 through March 31. Beshear also announced the act is working.

If McConnell thinks the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act is a good one, he’s wrong. At this point in the game, repealing the act would take away health care coverage from millions of Americans who need it, myself included.

The Affordable Care Act is just one of the many issues Republicans will try to take into their own hands as they attempt to undermine Obama’s presidency once the new Congress starts their term in January.

McConnell will be the new Senate Majority Leader come January, but all I’ll see him as is a turtle in a flock of lame ducks.