The Stop Obamacare End Game

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The new bright, shiny thing in Republican land is the notion that they really really might could get the Obamacare individual mandate delayed for a year or two. Kimberly Strassel writes in the Wall Street Journal,

The question of how the GOP should handle ObamaCare has of late been dominated by those who want the party to strip funding from the law, then shut down the government unless President Obama agrees. The Defund Republicans aren’t a large faction of the conservative movement, and their plan is deeply flawed. Their strength has been in exploiting the notable lack of alternate strategies for undercutting the unpopular health law.

That’s changing. A swelling coalition of conservative activists—card-carrying members of the “repeal ObamaCare” campaign—are lighting up the movement with a different approach. The plan aims to leverage public support, play on Democrat weaknesses, and, most notably, sidestep a shutdown fight that would damage the GOP even as it failed to kill the law. Meet the “Delay coalition.”

The thinking is that a shutdown will likely bite them in the ass, whereas a delay would enjoy public support and give them more time to sabotage the law and make sure it never works.

The Delay strategy is at least aimed at an achievable goal. Its outlines are contained in a letter engineered by Heather Higgins, CEO of Independent Women’s Voice. The letter was crafted with the aid of influential repeal activists—Phil Kerpen at American Commitment, Grover Norquist and Ryan Ellis at Americans for Tax Reform, the Galen Institute’s Grace-Marie Turner, Jim Capretta, Ken Hoagland, Avik Roy, the list rolls on—and now has more than 40 signatures. The letter calls on congressional Republican leaders to use one of this fall’s legislative fights to impose a one-year delay of ObamaCare’s individual mandate, exchange subsidies and taxes.

Here’s where Ms. Stossel goes from wistful to delusional:

The political calculus is that delay, unlike defund, pushes Democrats to do something that many are already inclined to do. The president himself has endorsed delay for key parts of the bill—the employer mandate, out-of-pocket-caps, income verification requirements. Unions, the bedrock of the liberal base, are demanding wholesale changes in the law. Vulnerable Senate Democrats know the ObamaCare exchanges are a pending disaster, and they are terrified of political fallout. Twenty-two House Democrats in July voted with Republicans to delay the individual mandate.

The President is delaying some aspects of the law for one year, mostly because business leaders and others told the White House they weren’t ready to implement them. But the stuff being delayed won’t impact the rest of the law, and will inconvenience a relatively small number of people. The parts Stossel and others want delayed would render the law completely inoperable.

There is no way the Senate or the President would go along with this. If Stossel and the rest of them believe otherwise, they really have lost touch with reality. However, it’s possible that they realize this won’t work, but they’re holding out the possibility that it can in order to keep the baggers in the House from shutting down the government.

8 thoughts on “The Stop Obamacare End Game”

  2. I think you mean to type Strassel, not Stossel. Stossel is the one with the moustache.

  3. Ok, let go back 8-10 years ago, after W signed “The Medicare Modernization Act (MMA),” and rewrite the first few paragraphs that maha quoted my Ms. Strassel:

    ‘The question of how the Democrats should handle MMA has of late been dominated by those who want the party to strip funding from the law, then shut down the government unless President Bush agrees. The Defund Democrats aren’t a large faction of the liberal movement, and their plan is deeply flawed. Their strength has been in exploiting the notable lack of alternate strategies for undercutting the unpopular AND COSTLY health law.
    ‘That’s changing. A swelling coalition of liberal activists—card-carrying members of the “repeal MMA BushCare” campaign—are lighting up the movement with a different approach. The plan aims to leverage public support, play on Republican weaknesses, and, most notably, sidestep a shutdown fight that would damage the DemocratIC Party even as it failed to kill the law. Meet the “Delay coalition.’
    (Btw – Ms. Strassel, might as well be Mr. Stossel – with or without a porn-mustache on her/his upper-lip – when she writes the following: “The plan aims to leverage public support, play on Democrat weaknesses…” Where, besides your writing style Ms. Strassel/Stossel, is the “IC”? DemocratIC, you brain-washed, propagandizing, nincompoop?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?).

    Hmm…
    Let’s continue this exercise, with the 2nd part that maha quoted:
    ‘The Delay strategy is at least aimed at an achievable goal. Its outlines are contained in a letter engineered by _______ ________, head of AARP. The letter was crafted with the aid of influential repeal activists – c u n d gulag at mahablogDotCom, etc., – and now has more than 40 signatures. The letter calls on congressional Democratic leaders to use one of this fall’s legislative fights to impose a one-year delay of MMA’s implementation, and charges.’
    (Yeah, I threw myself in there – because I always wanted to be called “influential!” 🙂 ).

    Imagine the up-roared titties, the Gordianly-knotted knickers, the garments and hair torn asunder and left lying on the floor, and the shrill shrieks and plaintive wails, not only of the Republican politicians, but also members of our Broderite MSM!

    FOX, and the WaPo and WSJ Editorial staffs, would have acted like it was 12/7/41, or 9/11/01 – screaming, and printing, in the boldest of the bold, largest of the large, type!
    Hell, Chris Matthews would have spewed out more mouth juice in one show, than water that broke through the levee’s in New Orleans.

    But Democrats don’t do things like that.
    Oh sure, some of us, like un-influential me, might go ape-poop, but the party as a whole believes that whoever wins an election, should have some rights to implement their platform.

    And so, instead of threatening to shut-down government, or not raising the Debt Ceiling for laws the Congress had already passed, the result was:
    Two tragic and unpaid for wars and occupations;
    People tortured;
    People sent to other countries to be tortured;
    Our very own GULag – albeit, a tropical one – at Gitmo;
    The deeply flawed MMA give-away to Big Pharma;
    Huge tax cuts for the wealthy, and peanut’s for the little people – all during a self-imposed/self-declared time of “war”;
    And disastrous deregulation – to the point of near total economic collapse!!!

    More’s the pity the Democrats didn’t go ape-poop and try to stop all of this – but they didn’t.

    Ah, but it’s not so at all for todays Republican Party!
    Republicans don’t believe one atom of any Democratically passed law – even if lawfully deliberated and passed, and signed by a Democratic President, and fully funded, and already partially implemented – should be allowed to exist.

    Today’s Republican Party is a collection of Nihilists, who are ALL ‘nucking fut’s,’ and scared of their own sociopathic Neanderthal base.

    If I die anytime soon, please put this on my urn after I’ve been cremated: “When he fucking said he was ‘sick to fucking death of these Conservative fucking assholes,’ he really fucking meant it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
    (Skip the extra exclamation points after the first one, if the extra ones cost any money. I’ll be dead. How the fuck will I know if you cheap bastards won’t pay for them? But DON’T skip the “fucks!” And have a good one yourselves, in celebration of my life! 😉 ).

  4. OY!
    Even WITH the small correction, my long-assed word-turd done got etted!!!!

    maha,
    If you find it (and my 2nd attempt), delete the first, and post the 2nd. I only corrected the spelling of one word, but that misspelling made it seem as if George W. Bush signed a give-away to a large Parmesan Cheese firm.

  6. Good one, C U N D gulag. (Why do I feel as if I doing toilet training?) Oh, right. Good one!

  7. Gah. I made the mistake of reading the comments at the Strassel article. Those people … man, I don’t know, just those people…

    I wonder if Strassel and the rest realize the fundamental contradiction built into their position… ObamaCare is deeply, deeply flawed (and just as deeply unpopular), will collapse under its own weight when implemented, will never work, will make health care in this country much, much worse … AND this is the absolute LAST chance they have of stopping it, because once it is fully in place the voters will NEVER let them get rid of it. Because they hate it so much, I suppose. And because it will be working so badly. People love that stuff. ….. I guess….

    -Ian

  8. Ian,
    I it weren’t for “dissonance,” there’d be nothing “cognitive” about our Reich-Wingers!

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