Michael Steele: GOP Needs Plan to Replace Obamacare Before Defunding It

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele wants to defund Obamacare as much as the next Republican, but he'd like to see a viable alternative.

"You may want to defund a lot of things, but you've got to deal with the reality of doing it and actually what happens when you do it – if you do it," Steele said Thursday on MSNBC's "Hardball."

"That's the piece that's still missing here," Steele said. "What are you going to replace Obamacare with?"

Steele agreed with host Chris Matthews that the plan by members of the tea party faction of the Senate Republicans to oppose funding does not represent a positive economic program.

Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Marco Rubio of Florida are three of the more prominent proponents of the effort, and all three are seen as potential contenders for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016. But Steele sees problems ahead if the effort succeeded and one of them actually became the chief executive.

"You're creating something now that you're going to inherit as president that will be far worse than what your dealing with right now," he said.