Feb 28 2010
Liberals “All In” On Health Care, Democrats Probably Won’t Follow
Andy McCarthy has begun an interesting and needed debate on the political stakes this year with the liberal’s mad rush to political implosion over health care. He rightfully notes the liberal leaders in Congress and the White House are going to go ahead with their Holy Grail of government rationed health care no matter what the cost:
The Democratic leadership has already internalized the inevitablility of taking its political lumps. That makes reconciliation truly scary. Since the Dems know they will have to ram this monstrosity through, they figure it might as well be as monstrous as they can get wavering Democrats to go along with. Clipping the leadership’s statist ambitions in order to peel off a few Republicans is not going to work.
…
We’re wired to think that everyone plays by the ususal rules of politics — i.e., if the tide starts to change, the side against whom it has turned modifies its positions in order to stay viable in the next election. But what will happen here will be the opposite. You have a party with the numbers to do anything it puts its mind to, led by movement Leftitsts who see their window of opportunity is closing. We seem to expect them to moderate because that’s what everybody in their position does. But they won’t. They will put their heads down and go for as much transformation as they can get, figuring that once they get it, it will never be rolled back.
Yes, the liberals in DC feel this is their last shot at this endless game of cramming socialistic plans down our throats. I still find it hilarious that the party that believes in evolution and natural selection abhors the same processes playing out in the free market. But I digress, the liberals are going to try and pass government rationed health care of some form, and the country has already unleashed its millions of antibodies to stop the madness.
McCarthy is right, the usually moderating desire for reelection is clearly absent this year, its going to be political suicide all the way. I thought that had become clear after Scott Brown’s win and we still had the return of Obamacare. But zealotry is not contagious, and if this is someone’s last Congress then that can unleash a lot of needed soul searching. Ed Morrissey also addresses the coming awakening and historic political moment this year:
A party with a leadership of zealots, though, could choose to use a two-year session of Congress to fundamentally remake America if it accepted a humiliating loss of power as the necessary trade-off.
However, that would require all of the politicians of that party to follow suit, and that’s where the Democratic leadership has a big problem. They didn’t gain the majority by elect[ing] over 300 cardboard cutouts of Nancy Pelosi as Representatives and Senators. While Andy is spot-on about Pelosi and her clique being descendants of the New Left radicals of the 1960s (as is Barack Obama), that’s not true for a large portion of their caucus, especially those representing red districts and red states.
Even the liberally brain washed NY Times is glimpsing the political finale on a strange and disastrous year:
Representative Dennis Cardoza, Democrat of California, typifies the speaker’s challenge. The husband of a family practice doctor, he is intimately familiar with the failings of the American health care system. His wife “comes home every night,†he said, “angry and frustrated at insurance companies denying people coverage they have paid for.â€
But as a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, Mr. Cardoza is not convinced that Mr. Obama’s bill offers the right prescription. It lacks anti-abortion language he favors, and he does not think it goes far enough in cutting costs. So while he voted for the House version — “with serious reservations,†he said — he is now on the fence.
“I think we can do better,†Mr. Cardoza said of the president’s proposal.
The entire nation is rapidly coming to the conclusion that this election has to send a clear and loud message to DC. We are going to pick one of two diverging paths this year and they need to listen. The liberals are going to try and push through Health Care establishing their preferred choice.
If they are lucky they will lose in Congress because enough dead-end Democrats will realize they are now free to vote their will and kill it. All Democrats now have very little chance of another term in the majority beyond November, many have no hope of another term ever. This actually releases Democrats from any pressure by the liberal leadership. They are now free to vote the path they want the country on: government control of our lives or individual freedoms and choices (with the requisite responsibility for the results).
The worse option for Dems is if the liberals actually pass Health Care. If it does pass there are immutable realities of the federal bureaucracy to factor in. The tax side of the bill can go into effect October 1, but the oversight of Health Care will take place at a much slower pace since the bureaucracy and processes will need to be put into place first. I would be surprised if in a year they could begin to start making an impact. And we all know any real benefits are years away, under the next President’s term. This means there is plenty of time to roll back in the next Congress anything passed in this one. Obamacare cannot become ‘entrenched’ in one vote or in one year. So Democrats need to consider what will this all be for in the end?
What will happen if the Liberals actually convince Democrats to drive off this cliff is there will be a mandate from the people to dismantle the Health Care madness completely – and then to move onto other areas of government intrusion. Liberals think they can control the outrage building in the nation, that their delusions of grandeur will come shining through as established fact for the peasants and dullards who make up the electorate once their fdream passes. They are completely clueless of course. If they continue own this path the country will rise up and smash them and anything even slightly tied to them.
They risk an enormous counter force that will roll back a century of building up the federal leviathan. The people will be so furious with these eggheads in DC taking their health care away they will support the break up of federal power over the states on all fronts.
There is no winning path for the liberals anymore. The GOP knows it, which is why they can stan pat without any risk. The only choice for the centrist Democrats is to decide how much damage they want the federal system to take in response to the liberal power grab. With an approval rating now between 10-20% it is now a question of what each Democrat wants to stand for as the their party flounders like the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic. There will be no Obamacare in a year.
Update: A cogent analysis of how DC has become insulated and disconnected from We The People
Ed Morrisey and Moe Lane have other views on this. I am not so sure the Democrats can pull it off, and if they do….I don’t think it will survive. Moe Lane made the point that Social Security and Medicare were both popular initiatives supported by the vast majority of Americans…this is not.
“The only choice for the centrist Democrats is to decide how much damage they want the federal system to take in response to the liberal power grab.”
And we will not forget what they put this country through and how they let the hard left radicals take over their party and this country.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/28/conrad-reconciliation-wont-work-for-obamacare/
Interesting Conrad D ND committee head says they can’t ram it through reconciliation not large parts of it so what, just the pain and 0 gain?
I think all the noise from the Dims about having the votes may be just a pivot to try to place the blame on Repubs for obstructing the takeover of 1/6th of the economy,
A battle that needs to be had and won by the Repubs!
I’m with you on this AJ, but I only hope and pray it plays out like you say. I worry about how the American people can become complacent – as they did with letting the Socialist Left in over the past several decades. They did it incrementally, and now we face this ultimate battle.
But I love the idea of the radical wing of the Democrat party driving the car off the cliff. It remains to be seen who, if any, amongst the Dems in Congress will stand up for their constituency and say it loud and clear.
Regardless of what the Kleptocrats do with their healthcare Ponzi scheme, the panoply of big government programs is headed for a crossroads. Greece is the canary in the coal mine. Califonia, Illinois and others will soon follow. Down the road, the “irresistable force” of federal programs -Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements- will soon meet the immovable objects – slow economic growth, a taxed-out productive sector and no more suckers to borrow from. Something will have to give or we will find ourselves like Weimar Germany, hauling boxes full of currency down to the store to buy a loaf of bread. After that, the deluge.
http://www.blogslucianneloves.com/Forum/?Thread=RLJFPRRJKX94449AM
Your in blogs Licianne loves AJ good job hope your right, I think you are …..They don’t have, the votes they are Deomcrat suicide bombers…. time to make Pinnochio a lame duck. All he does destroys profits, therefor business, therefore investment, therefore our economy. Hard to imagine someone who was trying to do so much damage could actually do so on purpose and some still believe he is just ignorant. He is either an Islamic terrorist or a marxist academic theorist.
How many Dems are willing to commit political suicide and go down in history as pariahs, Anti American sellouts and try to return to their neighborhoods for that?
Wilbur Post: I agree.
“Something will have to give or we will find ourselves like Weimar Germany, hauling boxes full of currency down to the store to buy a loaf of bread. After that, the deluge.”
War becomes much more likely. The last time it was a BIG one. I don’t see this one as being smaller.
I understand the “off the cliff” reference the picture is designed to portray but the “Thelma and Louise” reference is probably the wrong thing. They were two people who decided to not to submit to government and go out as independent free-thinking individuals with their destiny under their own control rather than submit.
I don’t think that is what the Democrats have in mind. A picture of a train wreck might be more in order.
CP,
Train wrecks are accidents – this is deliberate. And T&L were not submitting to the government, and the liberals are not submitting to the will of the people.
Seems appropriate to me!
😉
Reading Andy McCarthy’s article, I could help but think: Hitler in the Bunker. I never thought I would see a modern American political party, especially one in power, reach that point. It is worse than just wanting to misuse power; it truly is a death wish, both for the party and for the country.
I think the T&L picture is quite appropriate.
Time for a Hitler Bunker parody on Youtube!
I’ve been reading some other opinions this morning, and I’m coming to the belief (especially after seeing Conrad’s comments this weekend) that claims of changes through reconciliation are a sham with only one audience in mind – the push is on to give wavering house dems some reason to pass the Senate bill, which of course they could still do with a simple majority in the house. The plan would be to pass that bill, and then yank the rug out from under the house dems who honestly believed that there would be changes made in “reconciliation” – there wouldn’t be, and the foolish House Dems would be left holding the bag, claiming that the Senate lied to them.
And the Senate bill, flawed as it is, would become law.
The only problem with this – and it’s probably so big a problem as to be insurmountable – is that a growing number of House Dems are figuring this out. And even though they may be willing to sacrifice themselves for “the cause”, nobody is going to put up with being callously played for a sucker.
I predict the House will refuse to move first, precisely because they now overwhelmingly distrust the Senate. And the Senate won’t move first, because the claims that they can do this bill in reconciliation are a sham, only intended to con the House. And that will be endgame.
Remember who runs the democrat party–it is certainly NOT the so-called moderates, or the elected officials at all. This is the party of Soros/Rockefeller/labor and the rest of the far, far left. The health care fraud will enable these people to enslave the American public, hold absolute authority over every action, every thought, every purchase. That is too big an acorn to pass up. So the Thelma and Louise demands of loyal foot soldiers like Pelosi and Reid, though sheer lunacy for the average, clear thinking, actual AMERICAN, make for a small price to pay for realization of the dictatorial powers so long sought by our fascist friends. McCarthy is absolutely correct. The eventual prize is well worth the execution of a few unimportant followers.
Guys,
I am really concerned about this renewed push for OBAMACARE. I have an ominous feeling that they are going to get it through to law. What happens after that I do not know.
AJ,
When you see politicians doing insane things, it is for political campaign contributions for their next election.
There are several reasons for this, but the most important reason is that the next election is for a Congressman in the House and many US Senators is their partisan primary.
This is true for all but five months every two years (20.8%) for a Federal House Representative and five months every six years for Senators (6.9%).
If you as a Federal or State Legislator do not pay attention to the “money election“ between the general election and your next partisan primary, you won’t survive the partisan primary.
And in the case of the US House gerrymandering means that for between 60 and 67% of Democratic House Seats the partisan primary _the_only_election_there_is_.
This is why Democrats are going to push Healtcare Reform until after the 2010 cycle’s Democratic primaries are over.
Point in fact, this is also why you are seeing the Democrats in the US Senate stand back as a whole compared to the House. And Senators like Conrad (D) North Dakota are making stands against reconciliation because they cannot gerrymand a state.
I believe the the McCarthy article is correct, wavering Dems will vote with the party and pass the bill. They know they are dead meat anyway, and have nothing to loose.
Obamacare will be signed into law by May. What happens after that is up for speculation. The Republicans will win in November. However, they cannot repeal Obamacare without a willing president. The wheels of the left will begin to turn and the bloated machine will continue below the radar. Perhaps we get a new president in 2012, will the Republicans have the stomach to repeal Obamacare, probably not.
Its a done deal. I hope I am wrong but looks like it’s “done” and here to stay.
AJ,
Case in point about the Democratic Party Primary/General election survival issues:
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTNjMjY0ZjgyY2Q0NWMzNTlhYTAyMTE5NDVkMDE3MGQ=
Reactions to Primary Challengers Aren’t Always So Predictable
MSNBC’s First Read: “While Arkansas isn’t Pennsylvania — where Joe Sestak’s primary has pushed Arlen Specter to the left — [Bill] Halter’s challenge probably ensures that [Blanche] Lincoln ends up voting for reconciliation, assuming that Lincoln wants to remain in the Senate.”
Why do folks now see Lincoln as a certain ‘yes’ on Obamacare? Sure, a ‘no’ hurts her in the primary, but a ‘yes’ dooms her in the general. Put another way, she’s near-certain to be looking for a new job to start in January 2011, any way she votes…
Nothing concentrates the mind like an appointment with the hangman…and the first hangman in line is the one for her Primary.
Sen. Lincoln (D) AK survives longer in her caucus voting _for reconciliation_ rather than _against it_.
And she will get more goodies leaving government voting with her caucus, and against the interests of the general public, as well.
Consider those implications when you talk about the “Great Centerist Majority.”
[…] This post was Twitted by AJStrata […]
hints from pelosi that a smaller bill may be proposed on Wednesday….
that could be a game changer – but from Obama’s perspective, I think it would be a mistake. Too late in the game to open up the entire can of worms again. Surely they must know that.
Anybody watching Glen Beck now…with the older video of Jed Brandt talking about being a socialist/communist and how they are going to TAKE our INSURANCE companies if they have to in order to get Universal Health care….it goes on and on…
My hair is burning….