| | | Democrats’ Celebration Is Premature
Power Line by John Hinderaker
Pretty much everyone thinks the House’s failure to pass the GOP’s repeal-and-replace bill is a disaster for Republicans. The Democrats are giddy with glee, and Matt Drudge calls it a “catastrophe.” Perhaps they are right, but I doubt it.
Obamacare is in a death spiral. It is rapidly collapsing, and steadily becoming more unpopular as it fails more and more Americans. Congress will now move on to other tasks, like cutting taxes and building up the military. The Democrats had one chance to save Obamacare and they blew it: why isn’t that the conventional narrative?
Minnesota’s own Senator Amy Klobuchar writes on Facebook:
So now what? Are we just going to walk away, as the White House suggested? Or are we going to work together to bring healthcare costs down? There’s so much we can do – reduce prescription drug costs, help out people on the exchange, reform delivery systems, eliminate the medical device tax and more. We can’t walk away from the American people. Moving beyond healthcare isn’t an option.
Oh, yes, it is. If the Democrats have ideas on reducing prescription drug costs, helping people on the exchange, and so on, where have they been for the last seven years? And since when are Democrats interested in “working together”? They passed Obamacare with zero input from Republicans and zero Republican votes. When they had an opportunity this week to save Obamacare, not a single House Democrat was willing to vote for it.
Fine. Democrats are stuck with the Obamacare they passed. It won’t be reformed, and it will limp along for the time being. But the day will come, before long, when Obamacare’s collapse is so complete and so manifest that repeal will be revisited. In the meantime, I see no reason why Republicans should take the hit for the Democrats’ disastrous overreach.
Is that too optimistic a view of the situation? Maybe. But that is how it looks to me. |
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