I Figured That
A couple days ago, I talked with a couple friends of my friends about the Democrats’ health care legislation in the context of whether Democratic candidates would distance themselves from the subject. This article in The Hill Magazine not only tells me the answer is yes. It tells me that the answer is an emphatic yes:
Hardly any Democrat running for Congress seems to want to talk about healthcare.
Of the 26 leading Democratic House candidates contacted by The Hill, only one would commit to voting for the Senate healthcare bill if and when it comes to the House floor. Out of the more than two dozen Democratic challengers and open-seat House candidates, only 10 commented for this story. Eight outright declined to comment.
Eight more didn’t respond to several days’ worth of requests via phone and e-mail.
TRANSLATION: Democratic candidates are treating the subject like it’s radioactive waste. They want nothing to do with it.
Tarryl Clark, the woman who is attempting to unseat my congresslady, Michele Bachmann, gave her typical public noncommittal statement:
Reed’s primary opponent, state Sen. Tarryl Clark, said that the Senate bill is flawed but that the country can’t wait any longer. “Clearly, for America’s sake, we need to make some changes,” she said.
TRANSLATION: I’d vote for it in a heartbeat but I won’t say that in public.
The truth is that Tarryl Clark would vote for the Democrats’ health care legislation in a heartbeat. She’d vote for it because she’d consider it a first step towards the single-payer system that she prefers.
Tarryl hasn’t openly said that she prefers a single-payer system. Rather, she’s implied that’s what she’s for. Tarryl did that by hosting a health care forum in January, 2008 and inviting State Sen. John Marty, the most consistent supporter of a single-payer health system in Minnesota, as a featured guest. Tarryl is wise enough to not put her name on this list, too.
The bottom line is this: Democrats, whether they’re incumbents or challengers, don’t want to talk about health care. This tells me that health care is a losing issue for Democrats.
This morning on At Issue, Cathie Hartnett repeated the Democratic talking point that people won’t care whether Speaker Pelosi rams through the Senate bill once the bill is passed, implying that people will like it once it’s passed. Hartnett then said that the people don’t know what’s in the bill. Thankfully, David Strom didn’t let her get away with that, saying that it was “delusion” to think that the American people will like it. David then said that, after President Obama has given almost 40 speeches, people know what’s in the bill.
I agree with Mr. Strom. I pointed out in multiple posts that it was the American people speaking up at last August’s townhall meetings that were schooling Democratic Party elected officials.
The notion that we don’t know that there’s $500,000,000,000 in tax increases in the bill is insulting. We know that there’s a constitutionally suspect individual mandate from the federal government in the Senate bill, too. We know that Democrats put the ‘Doc Fix’ in a seperate bill so that doesn’t balloon the CBO’s deficit projections for Obamacare, too. We know that the reconciliation bill will initially include the $60,000,000,000 exemption for the unions.
The American people hate each of those provisions. Tax increases on the middle class and on small businesses aren’t popular. People hate special favors for political allies almost as much as tax increases. As for this legislation adding $460,000,000,000 to the deficit, that isn’t playing well anywhere.
The American people know that Obamacare is a financial disaster waiting to happen. That’s why Democrats running for office are distancing themselves from it instead of embracing Obamacare. That’s why I’d modify the old cliche that the proof is in the pudding slightly to say that the proof is in the campaigning.
Technorati Tags: Mandates, Health Care, Tax Increases, Special Interests, Unions, Deficits, Doc Fix, Corruption, Gimmicks, Tarryl Clark, John Marty, Democrats, Michele Bachmann, David Strom, Conservatism, Election 2010
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
March 14th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
The problem for the jackasses is that people DO know what’s in the bill and, in some cases, the jackasses don’t. All they’re doing is chirping the party line because they’re afraid to read the fetid piece of garbage.
If I were J. Boehner, I would try to hurry up the vote of the House, before the thugs from the Speaker up to the President have time to extort, bribe and generally cause ill in forcing spineless “moderates” to vote for it. Being congresspeople, it can’t be THAT difficult to find skeletons.
But then, what do I know? I’m just a po’ ol’ country boy anyway.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
That would be an excellent tactic I should think. Force a vote and call their bluster. Im sure Boehner has thought of that.
He could move the previous question, but I think that needs a 2/3 vote anyway, so he couldnt win anything..