The Republicans Will Not Be Able To Repeal Healthcare Reform Despite Their Promises To Do So...

[TomCADem]

This should be a huge let down, since the central plank of their efforts to get elected. If they were a Democrats, the corporate media would play the narrative about a failure to live up to expectations. Tea Party activists who were willing to attack from the right would be given prominent air time to complain about their disappointment, while "reasonable" Republicans who understood that it was difficult to overcome a Presidential Veto, and Democratically held Senate would largely be ignored.

The Sunday news shows would be filled with Democrats giving "advice" to Republicans about how they can turn it around. Heck, right now, there should be stories about a voter backlash to Republican proposals even before the newly elected member take office.

Finally, we should expect pundits to say that there is no real mandate despite the election results the way they told us following the 2008 election.

Of course, you will hear none of this. In 2012, despite the failure to repeal healthcare reform, the focus will be on Republican success at blocking President Obama's agenda, while ignoring Republican failures to deliber on their promises to repeal Healthcare reform or Financial Reform.

Likewise, even though both sides will have to compromise, only President Obama's compromises will be highlighted as a sign of weakness, while Republican compromises will be used to highlight John Boehner's leadership.

It is all about the corporate media narrative. Will we believe it. Worse, will we be the ones spreading this narrative?

[TheMadMonk]

1. They can achieve the same result, simply by defunding certain aspects...

...or refomulating: No govt. funding for policies that offer abortion coverage, to: No govt. funds to insurers that offer abortion coverage on ANY of their policies.

Insurers are already finding ways to interpret the language of the legislation, that allows them to continue cherry picking customers and limit the amount they have to pay out. A republican congress will be very friendly to such interpretations and even more narrowing of the language.

They may not be able to achieve repeal, but they can most certainly make the legislation worthless.

[deacon]

2. But but but-i thought Amercans said their first priority was jobs! Who's in denial Mr. Boehner? n/t

[KharmaTrain]

3. This Issue Has Limited Shelf Life

One of the dirty secrets of what pissed people off last Tuesday was the sharp rise many saw in their insurance premiums. Unfortunately in "compromising" on the bill, it allowed the Heath Insurance corporates to raise prices for virtually no reason other than to get one good last gouge in before regulations started to take hold. The average "joe" and "jane" who saw their premiums rise didn't know this, they just saw another big expense along with so many others in a time when jobs and money are tight.

As one who did a bunch of canvassing, I saw the frustration in many forms...right, left, "indepdent"...all saw the protracted health care debacle as a cause of problems in their lives, not a cure. Those who were most impacted are the most silent...the elderly, the poor...pepole who don't buy millions in TV time. Thus the endless right wing talking points made sense to people who heard their lies about spending going out of control and them seeing the costs of necessities such as health insurance, gas and food rise while their incomes and personal value shrink (especially if you were under water with real estate). The frustration is what was unleashed last Tuesday and since the Democrats were in charge, they took the hit.

Kudos to the GOTB who were able to make boogie men and strawmen that played to frustrations, but as you say, now they own part of this mess. Of course, many of us will say this is their mess in the first place and it appears their answers are to go back and make things worse. Just as people got pissed at Democrats for spending so much time trying to get the Health Insurance bill through should the GOTB try to fixate on repealing it over the next two years while ignoring the economic messes, they will pay for it as well.

[regnaD kciN]

5. That has nothing to do with any "compromising"...

Even if we had managed to get the full original public option -- hell, if we'd managed to get single-payer -- it still would have taken at least a year or two to put the structures in place and, during that time, the insurance companies would have gouged as much, or even more.

The big problem here, as it has been throughout Obama's presidency, is that we have complex problems that demand complex solutions and complex strategies...but the public doesn't want to hear that or know anything of the details, they merely want everything fixed right now, or else. And, to be honest, progressives are as prone to that magical thinking as ordinary voters, or else we wouldn't have so many here accusing Obama of "betrayal" for not simply waving his magic wand and giving us everything we wanted.

[KharmaTrain]

9. You Say It Very Well

Note the "compromising" in quotes as we both can agree it's a sham that is spun to make a sell out sound like some positive. Most of us are aware enough about this game and the system and, unfortunately, have settled for far less than we know would do the most good for the most people. Frustrating as all hell.

Obama is a complex player...maybe naive in how to play the game, but he can and does grasp the complexities and this is where there's a massive disconnect. It isn't "soundbite" friendly. Years of demonization of the concepts of Single-Payer made that solution (and yes, the best as far as I'm concerned) a near impossibility to enact and thus was willing to take the public option as a "compromise". When that went out the window, then it was taking whatever one could. By then fatigue had set in...especially within the beltway and whatever good was left within the legislation had long been outshouted by the right with their "death panels" and the anger on the left for the "mandate". I knew things were not working when I kept hearing the President still trying to explain what was in the bill up until the last campaign stop last weekend.

There are so many ironies I see in how people have reacted to this President...expecting him to do things that they screamed about during the previous regime. Executive orders all of a sudden were a good thing, just as I'm sure filibusters and vetos will when it means preserving any legislation the GOTB tries to undo. Just depends on perspective.

Cheers...

[TomCADem]

10. Yet, The Republicans Have Vowed To Repeal Healthcare...That Was Their Rallying Cry...

...If they were Democrats, the corporate media would play the failure to achieve this objective over and over again. Yet, as some post in this thread show, even DUers will the GOP a free pass, rather than hold them to the same standard we hold Democrats.

[Hannah Bell]

4. They're not going to repeal it. There's general agreement. They're going to defund Medicare and

Medicaid.

[regnaD kciN]

6. They won't be able to do that, either...

There may be some brinksmanship, with the House threatening to shut down the government unless the final budget bill omits funding for those items, but that will come to an end as soon as their Wall Street buddies let them know just what the consequences will be if they force the U.S. into defaulting on its debts.

[Scuba]

7. It's high on their list of priorities....

...right after tax cuts for the wealthy, gutting regulation and naming activist judges.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

8. they don't have to succeed...this is the problem

it will pass the House and be rejected by the Senate or at the very worst vetoed by President Obama. They can then say that they did the will of the people who elected them. They can then target Dems in the Senate (and House) who would not vote with them and use it as a campaign issue in 2012. This is the plan...not to succeed...but to blame...

sP

[TomCADem]

11. If they were Democrats, the structural problems would be ignored...

...in your example, you (rightly) assume that Democrats will be targetted for blocking Republican efforts to repeal healthcare. Yet, why weren't Republicans targetted for their unprecedented numbers of filibusters?

Democrats certainly blamed Republicans as the Party of NO, but the corporate media ran interference. Instead, the corporate media portrayed the no votes as some great victory.

Conversely, if Democrats stop repeal, then this will be portrayed as obstructionism, and blocking the mandate of the people.