In this morning’s American Spectator, Jim Antle writes that some Republicans are having second thoughts about the political implications of trashing (figuratively and literally) ObamaCare.
[T]his appears to be the working definition of conservatism embraced by most GOP politicians. Republicans campaign on canceling spending programs, shutting down government agencies, and overturning Roe v. Wade. But once safely in office, they tend to leave most liberal handiwork alone, failing to repeal even Bill Clinton’s tax increases. Occasionally they add a few big-government flourishes of their own — a new entitlement to enlarge Medicare’s unfunded liabilities here, a record increase in federal education spending there.
When David Frum blogs about the Republican pedigree of some ideas in the Democratic health care bill and suggests Republican snouts should have found their way to the trough, there is outrage. When Republicans actually govern this way, too often there is silence — eerily like the hush that falls over antiwar protests after Democrats are elected on promises to end wars, even though the wars still continue.
If Republicans cannot repeal an unpopular bill where many of the costs are front-loaded, many of the benefits are yet to come, and where the creation of another entitlement is as detrimental to their own partisan self-interest as it is to the nation’s finances, then conservatives cannot count on Republicans to undo very much of what they routinely denounce and campaign against.
In summary: politicians are ambitious, power-hungry, lying leeches on the hindquarters of the American people.
