Why should the Republicans try to pull Obamacare’s fat out of the fire by correcting some of its most anger-provoking consequences?
DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ asks a Good question:
The GOP has to be seen doing something. That’s just reality. Millions of people who played by the rules are losing their insurance and quite possibly their doctors as well. It’s simply not an option for a political party to say, “Wow, that sucks for you. Should have voted for us, huh?”. Campaigns are about generating future support, not punishing voters for past lack of support…Could this all go south and wind up with the GOP sharing blame for Obama’s failure? Theoretically, yes. But doing nothing isn’t risk free either.
I’ve pondered this question ever since I heard that Republicans had suggested a Keep Your Health Plan Act to undo the cancellations and make Obama stick to his promises.
Why interrupt your enemy when he might already be occupied in effectively destroying himself? Then again, people are suffering, and a failure to help them will not endear Republicans to anyone except the most die-hard tough-love advocates.
And the majority of the people whose policies are being cancelled probably didn’t even support Obamacare in the first place.
However, it’s not at all clear that attempts to “fix” Obamacare with a Keep Your Health Plan Act would be possible to implement at this late date, now that so many policies have already been cancelled. Trying to reinstate the policies would also tend to conjure up the problem the cancellations were meant to forestall in the first place: the tendency of the exchanges to appeal to the sicker and older rather than attracting the younger and healthier.
And wouldn’t Obama be likely to veto such a bill?
As a result of all this turmoil, a political party is having a civil war — and for a change it’s not the Republicans.
Actually, what’s going on with the Democrats seems to be less a civil war than the venting of long-pent-up anger at the president on the part of Democrats who feel they’ve been burned by him. Obama has never been known for his good relationships with those on Capitol Hill, not even the Democrats there. He’s been arrogant and stand-offish to them, too, as well as to the Republicans.
So, will Obama cave in to his party’s demands, given that he really doesn’t give a hoot about them, and no longer needs them in order to get re-elected?
Of course, he can’t get more legislation passed without the support of Democratic members of Congress. But perhaps he’s content to rest on his laurels in terms of his “transformative” legislative accomplishments (such as Obamacare), and will just continue to go around Congress by more executive orders in the future.
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