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The Obamacare Fight Is Just Beginning
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Issue
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| Contributor | Imperator |
| Last Edited | Imperator Oct 01, 2013 11:04am |
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| Category | Opinion |
| Author | Rich Lowry |
| News Date | Tuesday, October 1, 2013 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Democrats are affronted that Republicans have made Obamacare a focus of this fall’s fiscal fights.
They should get used to it. Even if Democrats deflect efforts to defund or delay the law in coming weeks, the fight will go on. Republican opposition is for the long haul, and it should be.
Even as the exchanges for individuals to purchase insurance get up and running, Obamacare is still in play. It has a legitimacy problem. It had one before it passed, when it was kept afloat through gross special deals, and it has one still, when it is manifestly failing to live up to the president’s salesmanship on its behalf. There’s a reason that usually we don’t pass major social changes lacking popular support on party-line votes — it is a formula for conflict rather than consensus.
Having done the deed, Democrats now expect Republicans to salute smartly, accept “the law of the land,” and suggest minor improvements that Democrats will, in their wisdom, decide whether or not to adopt. In other words, they recommend the acquiescence of surrender. If this were a consistent principle rather than opportunistic advice, Democrats would have been content to leave “don’t ask, don’t tell” in place and never would have agitated to repeal the Bush tax cuts, out of deference to duly constituted policy and law.
Nearly four years after Obamacare passed, the coalition against it has expanded rather than shrunk. The unions are now excoriating the law in terms that once would have been reserved for Republican floor speeches. During his filibuster, Texas senator Ted Cruz repeatedly quoted a letter from Teamsters leader Jim Hoffa attacking Obamacare as a clear and present threat to the middle class. When House Republicans voted to delay the individual mandate this summer, 35 Democrats joined them; Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, announced his support for a delay just last week. |
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