http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/its_repeal_thats_ailing_20110121/It’s Repeal That’s Ailing
Posted on Jan 21, 2011
By Eugene Robinson
This whole health care thing isn’t quite working out the way Republicans planned. My guess is that they’ll soon try to change the subject—but I’m afraid they’re already in too deep.
Wednesday’s vote to repeal President Obama’s health insurance reform law
was supposed to be a crowning triumph. We heard confident GOP predictions that cowed Democrats would defect in droves, generating unstoppable momentum that forced the Senate to obey “the will of the people” and follow suit. The Democrats’ biggest domestic accomplishment would be in ruins and Obama’s political standing would be damaged, perhaps irreparably.
What actually happened, though, is that the Republican majority managed to win the votes of just three Democrats—all of them Blue Dogs who have been consistent opponents of the reform package anyway. In terms of actual defectors, meaning Democrats who changed sides on the issue, there were none. This is momentum?snip//
The exercise in intellectual contortion that was necessary for the House to pass the repeal bill will be an excellent tune-up for what’s supposed to come next. “Repeal and replace” was the promise—get rid of the Democrats’ reform plan and design one of their own. This is going to be fun.
It turns out that
voters look forward to the day when no one can be denied insurance coverage because of pre-existing conditions. They like the fact that young adults, until they are 26, can be kept on their parents’ policies. They like not having yearly or lifetime limits on benefits. The GOP is going to have to design something that looks a lot like Obamacare.
Meanwhile, Obama’s approval ratings climb higher every week. Somebody change the subject. Quick!
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