Ed discusses a little-noticed provision of last night’s deal—Reid’s agreement to allow a Senate vote on defunding the “Affordable Care Act,” or ObamaCare:
As we repeatedly pointed out during the election, repeal of ObamaCare will be impossible until at least 2013, when we have an opportunity to elect and install a new President who will sign such a bill, even had we won control of the Senate.
So this isn’t important because it holds some new hope for a quicker repeal. Rather, it forces Democrats to defend the massive government expansion of control yet again, this time closer to the 2012 election. Democrats didn’t run on ObamaCare in 2010, except in reliably liberal districts for House races, and the last thing they need in an already-difficult cycle is another reminder to voters of the unpopular program. By forcing a floor vote in this agreement, Reid will have to get his caucus — now reduced to 53 rather than 59 — to entirely back ObamaCare in a new vote.
That means Senators like Bill Nelson in Florida will have to back it, even with the latest Quinnipiac poll showing voters there opposing it 41/49 more than a year after its rollout. Jon Tester in Montana will have to explain yet again to his constituents why he wants the IRS to be health-insurance cops. Claire McCaskill already has enough problems in Missouri, as does Ben Nelson in Nebraska. Even Democrats running for re-election in 2014 — like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor in Arkansas — will have to go back on the record to support it in order to keep the repeal from passing Congress, and that comes after the clear expression of voter disapproval in last year’s midterms.
Of course, even if that happened, Obama would veto it, but that creates problems for him as well. If Democrats peel away from ObamaCare and he has to veto it to keep it in place, he suddenly looks very extreme and out of touch.
“Suddenly”?
UPDATE: Da TechGuy is happy we’re making progress. Stacy and Ace are, however, stomping their impatient little feet.
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Haha, Twas Obama that won the 2012 election yesterday.
Boner was just a bit player.
Yeah. People just love it when Dems hold fast over trivial amounts of money
when a $1.5 Trillion deficit looms.
On the other hand, “We didn’t know they had tanks,” might have
made it into the lexicon. Generalisimo Bumblefuck. God love him.
“The people” want the rich to pay more in taxes, Purrel.
I doubt the real Republicans are happy that the only thing Boner was willing to fight(and lose) over were the partisan cuts demanded by fringe right religious freaks of the Republican Party.
I don’t know how much you are paid for that nonsense but believe me fellow, it isn’t enough.
I’m always impressed when the solution to a financial jam is “give us more of other people’s money.”
And . . . keep emphasizing Boehner’s virility; I suspect we’ll be seeing more of it over the next two years.
I hear he cried during the negotiations with Obama.
You have a rather odd definition of virility, LMA.
I like sensitive, passionate men. A boner is simply a bonus.
“Bonus Boner”
I believe we have a new name for our sensitive Speaker.
Hey–if it weren’t for that weird tan, he’d be Pure Awesome.
Well..on the tax thing, doesn’t it seem odd for all the shouting and hair pulling over $40 billion in spending when the cost of extending Bush’s tax cuts for this year is over $400 billion?
Especially considering the vast majority of government spending goes to rich and middle class Americans, not the poor?
ponce,
how exactly does the government spend more on the rich and not the poor?
that’s a new one on me.
Keep in mind that any money the government doesn’t confiscate is “spending,” in Ponce-land.
Therefore, tax cuts “cost” us money, and any tax breaks are “spending.”
Rich and Middle Class, TWB.
Programs specifically for the poor, like food stamps, are a rather small part of the federal budget.
The key word there being “specifically.” Plenty of programs, of course, help them immensely without being targeted directly at the poor and excluding everyone else.
Food Stamps, by far the biggest program targeted at the poor, costs about $50 billion a year, or about 1.5% of the federal budget, LMA.
And foreign aid is only about $30 billion a year, or less than 1% of the federal budget. And a huge chunk of that goes to Israel. Very little actually goes to poor people around the world. Most Americans overestimate the size of America’s foreign aid budget by a factor of 10.
Who brought up foreign aid?
Obama gave Europe $1 Trillion on his first visit there to help with the financial crisis.
Is that part of your $30 Billion? 😉
Republicans should put up another $120 Billion in cuts next week. I see a trend.
The only trend I see is the religious freaks of the Republican Party threatened to shut down the government if they didn’t get their.
And Obama called their bluff.
The extremist, wild-eyed, rabid, freaks and weirdos of the Democrat
Party–every Democrat out there–have targeted themselves for extinction in the coming elections.
Once again they have shown that the only idea in their bag of tricks is tax and spend. Just like before. Just like always.
Tax and spend is the epitaph of the Democrat Party. May God have mercy on their souls. Taxpayers will not shed one tear.
The Democrats moment in history will pass unnoticed like tears in a hurricane.
Purrel,
The Republicans would be much better off they just accepted abortion as settled law instead of staging these regular impotent temper tantrums where they try to drag America back to their 18th century morality.
Settled law. Settled science. Bullshit.
Life is precious and has been since the first moment of creation. And will be
until the final breath and tick of time. Reject that death cult you belong to called the Left.
God’s Law is settled. It is, was, and shall be.
Procreate or don’t, but stop lying about abortion.
You think America should be run under god’s law, Pureel?
Sounds like you’d be happier living under the Taliban.
One Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
That’s always better than the faux religion of Marx.
Which god is the big question there, Purrel.
There are so many good ones to choose from.
Not Marx. Or Engels.
Or Ayers. Or any other Marxist idiots.
How about the one the Founder’s referenced?
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
I know you clowns have a bromance with the Taliban because they share your hatred of America.
You expect them to do your dirty work for you while you take control of the world, before dealing with them like the Soviets did.
Just make sure you keep your head about you. They are not as stupid or simple as you think. That small “g” you think is so clever
would get you and your head to part ways.
Actually, Purrel, I’m a big fan of Pythian Apollo.
At least he did things for his believers.
As for this:
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”
Can I assume you’re one of them ” Christians” who doesn’t believe in Jesus?
You can make an ass out of yourself anytime you like.
As evidenced by your history here.
As Jesus is God, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, it is customary to refer to the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rather than the God of Jesus.
You should have gone to Mass rather than those Marxist gatherings in the back alleys.
Marx does things for his followers, too. Makes them stupid and dangerous as evidenced by the body count.
I made a comment insulting the purveyors of your superstition, Purrel, but it seems to have been smoted.
Today I smite, yesterday I smote. Many times I have smitten . . .
Oh how clever you are, ponce!
I’m sure I would have been devastated. . .
You’re expecting Reid to keep his word. I find that charmingly amusing in a person.
It looks to me like a situation in which people are either crying over the half loaf as if they had gotten none, or over the half loaf as if it were full.