| | | Obama selfish, stubborn on health care: Column
Glenn Harlan Reynolds7:07 p.m. EDT September 23, 2013
The majority of Americans don't want the flawed ObamaCare, so why is the president pushing it?
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It's also sadly typical that Obama sees this debate as being all about him.
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Now Obama wants to do what Bill Clinton did to Newt Gingrich: Provoke a government shutdown that can be blamed on the House GOP. But there are problems. First, of course, Obama is no Bill Clinton: As the debacle over Syria, the defeat on gun control, and the disappearance of the once-trumpeted immigration initiative indicate, he's no political wizard.
Indeed, one reason, I suspect, that he's set down a red line on ObamaCare is that it's pretty much the only legislative accomplishment he can claim as his legacy.The problem with that is that ObamaCare was unpopular in 2010 (that's why Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who crammed it through, is no longer speaker, but a minority figure in a GOP-controlled House).
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as policies are canceled and employers shift to part-time hiring in order to escape ObamaCare's onerous restrictions. It's no wonder that anNBC poll a week ago found that 45% of U.S. adults say that the Affordable Care Act will make the health care situation in the U.S. worse, while only 23% say the law will make it better. And as ABC notes, currently 52% oppose the law, and, even more striking: "In 16 ABC-Post polls since August 2009, it has never received majority support."
Now, in spite of these sentiments, Obama will negotiate with Iran or Syria, but not with the House Republicans. And if the Senate passes the House bill and sends it to him, Obama will presumably enforce this red line and veto the budget, plunging the nation into a government shutdown.
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The truth is, Obama would be better off cutting a deal with the Republicans. ObamaCare implementation, scheduled for Oct. 1, is going terribly and it seems very unlikely that it will be anything other than what former supporter Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., correctly characterized as a " train wreck." In fact, they've already had to implement delays and exemptions because of problems. And now there's word that the software doesn't work. Instead of refusing to negotiate, Obama should be trying to work something out, instead of engaging in brinkmanship.
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