Obama would be starting to face a groundswell of upset. Lots of people are beginning to complain, not just the unions. Someone my wife knows from Bible study is a farmer, and has had her own health insurance policy -- until now. She just received a letter from her insurer explaining that they are no longer allowed to offer that policy (probably because it does not have the various mandatory coverages). What she has found when looking for a replacement insurance policy is that it will be a lot more expensive -- enough so that she can't afford to buy it, and will just have to pay the penalty instead.
I understand that Republicans want to take a principled stand on this, but Americans don't care about principles. What they will care about is that those who could barely afford health insurance before, won't be able to afford it now. This distraction over the government shutdown is going to give the whoremongers of the mainstream media the excuse they need to blame these individual disasters on the Republicans, not on the party who passed the law.
I strongly suspect this is driven by polling the base, which is getting ever more fed up by the Surrender Caucus that is the GOP Establishment. 2012, in the light of 2010, should have been a major wake-up call: no matter how much it loathes its base, it can't do without it (right now, and attempts to replace the base with immigrants isn't getting past the bar of having to pass a new amnesty bill).
ReplyDeleteI mean, what, exactly is the GOP doing to earn votes from its base?