Bad Policy, Bad Politics
Thursday, March 25th, 2010By passing the health care legislation, the Democrats have tipped on its head the old cliche that good policy makes for good politicking. By passing their health care legislation, the Democrats appear willing to test the theory of whether bad policy makes for difficult politicking.
Karl Rove thinks that’s the result of the Democrats’ passing health care legislation:
Democratic hopes that passing health-care reform will help them politically will be unfulfilled because ObamaCare only benefits a small number of people in the short run. Until the massive subsidies to insurance companies fully ramp up in 2017, this bill will be more pain than gain for most Americans.
For example, changes in insurance regulations in 2011 and two new mandates in 2014 that force everyone to buy insurance and require everyone to be charged a similar price regardless of age or health will cause insurance premiums to rise more than they would have otherwise. The 10 million people who have a health savings account will also be hurt starting in 2011. With each passing year after that, they will be able to put less away tax free for medical expenses.
Rather than listening to the American people and rather than implementing the good ideas that Republicans have offered, Democrats insisted on passing this legislation. There’s been a brief spike in President Obama’s approval ratings but that’s because Democrats came home. It isn’t because independents started liking the Democrats’ health care legislation.
The Democrats’ giddiness is understandable but this polling will return them to reality rather quickly: (more…)