Health reform and the specter of Alf Landon

[Joanne98]

By Dana Milbank
Sunday, March 21, 2010

"This is the largest tax bill in history," the Republican leader fumed. The reform "is unjust, unworkable, stupidly drafted and wastefully financed."

And that wasn't all. This "cruel hoax," he said, this "folly" of "bungling and waste," compared poorly to the "much less expensive" and "practical measures" favored by the Republicans.

"We must repeal," the GOP leader argued. "The Republican Party is pledged to do this."

That was Republican presidential nominee Alf Landon in a September 1936 campaign speech. He based his bid for the White House on repealing Social Security.

Bad call, Alf. Republicans lost that presidential election in a landslide. By the time they finally regained the White House -- 16 years later -- their nominee, Dwight Eisenhower, had abandoned the party's repeal platform.

Circumstances are different now, as Republicans, assuming the Democrats' health legislation clears the House this weekend, prepare to campaign this year and in 2012 on the repeal of health-care reform. But the ghost of Landon should spook them as they do so: The health-care legislation, if passed, won't be repealed, and the politics of repeal may not work out as well as Republicans expect. You wouldn't think that based on the headlong rush to demand a repeal even before the health bill becomes law.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031902636.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Who will be the Republicans Alf Landon in 2012?

nt

[LibDemAlways]

2. I think they will primarily campaign on repeal of the mandate and the fine

for non-compliance. I think they will be successful in picking up seats this fall if they use that tactic. I suspect the American public is not going to be happy when they learn they are being required (three years from now, true) to fork over their hard-earned dollars to the same corporations who've screwed them in the past. Just a hunch. I really do think Dems are shooting themselves in the foot by not including some sort of public option.

[IndianaGreen]

3. This is not the New Deal and Obama is not FDR

However, today's GOP would consider the likes of Alf Landon and Herbert Hoover to be political moderates. Hoover, the man tapped by President Truman to feed Europe after WWII, would be accused of being a bleeding heart liberal by pundits like Malkin and Coulter.