You know that old political saw: once given an entitlement, it’s almost impossible to take it back. In this case, Obamacare and its real payload, Expanded Medicaid. We’d expect Democrats to defend it – it is THE way to continue to have Government insert itself more and more into the healthcare space. Presto – universal socialized medicine by incremental stealth.
And the Democrats baked this cake:
(H/T: The Corner)
What floors me is the vigor with which some Republicans, like Maine’s Senator Susan Collins, has defended Obamacare (to the point she wants to keep THE ENTIRE THING to allow States to choose it). More decided to figuratively stand with Democrats in defending Expanded Medicaid. Now to be sure, Dems used it to put more and more people (even able bodied single working guys) into Government servitude – this fits their philosophy and they were willing to pay the electoral price (their elected seats) to advance their ideological end point.
Republicans? They fear getting tossed out of their seats by voters unhappy that something was taken away from them. We sneeringly call them “the go along to get along” and fulfilling the mantra that the true job of a politician is to get re-elected, full stop.
Standing up and defending their beliefs – well, it is becoming real clear that those never really existed.
Uptake – a sham.
Especially when you read this about some Republicans:
The fact remains, however, that House Republicans aren’t in a different position than they were on Friday. The math is the same. Republican leaders are still struggling to satisfy two diametrically opposed forces: moderates who want to see to government lend more support to middle and low-income people to buy health insurance and conservatives who want to see Obamacare repealed more fully so that even popular regulations like the one requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions disappear.
That “more support” is just doing the same as the Democrats’s premium tax credits – done sideways. It’s like what the NH Republicans like Jeb Bradley and Chuck Morse did – claim it was a “private sector” solution. What they never really seem to want to mention is that without government tax money, they wouldn’t have done it (e.g., “free money” paid by all of us Federal tax payers – who live in NH).
More lending means more government – thanks Republicans!
(H/T: CNN)
Also, go read this over at IBD and keep reading until you find “Secret Sauce”. And there is this:
If Republicans aren’t willing to fight this trend — or worse, are now cheering it on — then they’ve pretty much given up the battle against government-run health care.
