That Was Quick: Is Obamacare Already Dead?
Posted by Bill Dupray
on Jun 13 2009 Filed under Politics.
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It seems like just yesterday that Obama announced the details of his Nationalized Health Care plan. Today, Bill Kristol and Yuval Levin write in the Weekly Standard that if the Republicans stay united against it, there are enough moderate Democrats who will vote against it and the whole thing will go down in flames. Kristol and Levin aren’t just hoping for this outcome, they have contacts and have named names. This is encouraging.
Clearly the point is to use the power of the government to impose price controls and override state rules in order to undersell private insurers. The public plan is a gradual path to single payer health care, aimed at moving American health care in a European or Canadian direction.
This has made the Obama plan increasingly controversial, if not imperiled. Essentially every Republican in Washington has expressed firm opposition to a government plan, and a growing number of Democrats are doing the same. Nebraska senator Ben Nelson has called it a deal-breaker. Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu said last week she would not vote for it. Many other Democrats in the Senate and the House are wary, to say the least. . . .
Meanwhile, those industry groups who joined President Obama at the White House for a photo-op last month are now worried. One of them, the American Medical Association, announced last week it would oppose outright any plan with a government insurance option. “The introduction of a new public plan threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers,” the AMA said, and the requirements of such a plan would severely burden doctors and “would likely lead to an explosion of costs that would need to be absorbed by taxpayers.” The American Hospital Association sent a letter to its members in late May clarifying that “The A.H.A. did not commit to support the ‘Obama health plan’ or budget.” AHIP, the association of insurance providers, is preparing to mount a campaign against the public plan.
The logic of Democrats’ (Republicans should, on principle alone, always oppose the government’s doing anything not required under the Constitution, and health care ain’t in there) opposition to the plan is clear. If the doctor’s, health insurance companies, and the public don’t like it, what constituency are the politicians serving by voting for the plan? Even if they are authoritarian, nanny-state, do-gooders, who would vote for anything that would aggrandize their own power, they still need to win reelection to enjoy that power. Following a president who was the most liberal Senator in the Senate down the road to Nationalized Health Care may not play well in the 95% of Congressional districts that are not as liberal.
The good news is that opinion polls suggest the vast majority of Americans do not want their health coverage forcibly changed by the federal government. Indeed, Americans today are less persuaded of the need for radical reform than they were the last time the Democrats tried to enact one, in 1993. As Michael Barone points out, “An April tracking poll conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that voters rank changing health care below strengthening the economy, stabilizing Medicare and Social Security, and reducing the federal budget deficit on a list of eight possible priorities. . . . The blunt fact is that most Americans are satisfied with their health insurance and don’t believe major legislation will improve things for them.”
The American public is right. ObamaCare is wrong. It should and can be defeated. It is moderates and Democrats who ultimately will defeat it late this year or next–but they will do so only if Republicans stand firm now and conservatives make the arguments now.
I will be calling my two moderate Democrat Senators from Virginia, Mark Warner and Jim Webb, on this. If everybody grabs and oar and pulls, Obamacare may go the way of Comprehensive Immigration Reform in the summer of 2007: right in the trash can.
Related Posts
- Fred Barnes: ObamaCare is dead with not the slightest prospect of resurrection
- Obamacare: You Will Lose Your Current Insurance. Period. End of Story.
- The Video That Could Kill ObamaCare
- Counterattack Begins: Bill Introduced to Repeal Obamacare
- The Battle Over Obamacare’s Obituary Has Begun
Short URL: http://libertypundits.net/?p=4579
“If the doctor’s, health insurance companies, and the public don’t like it, what constituency are the politicians serving by voting for the plan?”
Some don’t care about constituencies. During the Hilllary care discussions Jay Rockerfeller said that the American people were going to get this healthcare bill whether they wanted it or not.
And where is AARP? They would scream bloody murder if W said he ws going to cut Medicare. Seniors should be in open revolt.
This is good news, indeed. I want to see a bloody battle on this.