Writing in The Wall Street Journal, former “Bush brain” Karl Rove says the GOP “would have deeply damaged its credibility” if the U.S. House had not moved forward with a vote to repeal the 2010 federal health care reform legislation.
Virtually every claim the Obama administration has made on its behalf is turning out to be untrue. (Recall “If you like your current [health-care] plan, you will be able to keep it.”) Or it wasn’t credible to start with, such as the claim by the Office of Management and Budget that the bill will cut the deficit. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll this week showed that 62% see it as increasing the deficit, 54% think it’ll hurt the economy, and 46% think the law will cost jobs. When Republicans have winning arguments, they should keep pressing them.
The House vote also gives the GOP momentum to make ObamaCare a principal issue in the 2012 election. That can’t make vulnerable House Democrats who barely survived last fall’s campaign, or the 24 Democratic senators up in 2012 (many in red states), happy. Nor can it be to the advantage of the president, who will also be on the ballot.
The longer this issue is around, the worse it’s likely to be for Democrats. This year’s ObamaCare-mandated Medicare cuts are geometrically larger than last year’s. Dissatisfaction among health-care providers will continue rising as the new health-care law adversely affects their profession. The concerns of business leaders will become more pronounced as the law’s mandates limit their choices while increasing their costs. And consumer discontent will grow as promised declines in insurance premiums and health-care costs don’t materialize.
This is why health-care reform?unlike every other major piece of social legislation in modern history?has become less, not more, popular since it passed. A poll this week from Resurgent Republic (a group I helped form) showed that voters support Republican efforts to repeal and replace the health-care law by 49% to 44%, with independents supporting repeal 54% to 36%.
