Republicans Will Be Toast in 2010 If the Dems Pass Health Reform, and They Know It

[kpete]

Republicans Will Be Toast in 2010 If the Dems Pass Health Reform, and They Know It

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2009.

If Obama and the Democrats get health care reform done, the Republican Party is finished in the next election. So it's pulling out the stops.

If President Barack Obama succeeds in signing a major health care reform bill into law -- one that provides a public plan for people currently priced out of the system -- he will achieve what at least three presidents before him had hoped for, and failed to do. And he will likely deprive the Republican minority in Congress from anything approaching a comeback in the 2010 midterm elections.

However, if health care reform does not pass early in Obama's term, the Democrats will likely face midterm elections amid rising unemployment figures with a record of having passed legislation characterized as "bailouts" for megabanks and large corporations -- bills whose benefits to the economy have little impact on the person who has already lost a job. So GOP leaders are focused like a laser beam on stopping health-care reform in its tracks.

As Congress cleared two major hurdles last week toward agreement on the provisions in such a bill, the Republican pique approached a new level of shrillness.

more:
http://www.alternet.org/politics/141440/republicans_will_be_toast_in_2010_if_the_dems_pass_health_reform%2C_and_they_know_it/

[babylonsister]

1. Exactly. This is the rethugs' hail mary, which is why they're collectively

acting like raging...asses.

[stubtoe]

2. It's a shame the Repubs feel compelled to politicize this issue.

But then, they're displaying the fact they don't work for the public that elected them, but for themselves and their campaign donors.

Either way they're toast.

[dmosh42]

3. You're right on! This is why I wonder when Obama hasn't...

been on the attack. If he gets a decent health care plan with universal coverage, he'll be unstoppable for his re-election.

[Old and In the Way]

4. They may be toast if it fails.

If the Republicans vote in mass to defeat it by a few votes, I would think the voters will under who the party of obstruction is.

[Demeter]

5. The GOP Is Toast Already--in Fact, It's Charcoal

and defeating healthcare WILL finish them off forever.

IF the GOP supported single payer universal, they MIGHT be able to make a comeback electorally. but they would rather die first. I'm cool with that!
:evilgrin:

[joeybee12]

6. If they get it done "right"...

...if the Dems compromise away and cowtow to idiots like Collins and Nelson and make the plan expensive and far from reaching its goals, then voters will be angry at the rising costs. however, i don't think this will be all that noticeable by 2010...by 2012 a bad plan will raelly come home to roost.

[bemildred]

7. They are also going to be toast if they don't pass it. nt

[enlightenment]

8. Not too sure about that.

I think (note that 'I think' - it means this is my personal opinion, not a pronouncement) most people (regular, don't spend much time hanging around political discussion forum people) assume that passing it in a big rush means that it will change things 'on the ground' quickly - and the plan that is being pushed around now doesn't appear to do that, if the date I've seen for implementation, 2013, is correct.

It makes for great soundbites - and if it passes it will make for brilliant political theatre, with everyone preening and cooing while the President signs with a flourish and a smile. But once the show is over, and people realize that they're still going to have to wait for any improvement in their personal situation, the anger is not going to focus on the Republicans, but on the people who passed a law that won't benefit them for another 3-1/2 years.

Kind of like that credit card legislation. Passing restrictions to prevent credit card companies from practicing levels of usury that make 17th century money lenders look like pikers . . . but not implementing it for another year. A 'wink nudge' to those companies to up their rates now, because "we're going to make you stop. Later".

Oddly enough, the people have grasped that little fact and the folks I've spoken to are not pleased about it.



I wish we could have a moratorium - even a short one - on campaigning for reelection. A year, maybe. Two would be nice. Just some period where it felt like our elected officials were actually doing the job we hired them to do, rather than doing their best to get reelected.