Noam Scheiber writes that the Republican Party is the Titanic, and the Affordable Care Act is the iceberg.
Conservatives are counting on the implementation of Obamacare to be a train wreck of epic proportions, which will allow them to triumph in the 2014 midterms, not to mention the 2016 presidential election. They believe this as fervently as they believed Romney was winning 2012 in a landslide.
If you want to appreciate how truly incorrigible conservatives are on the subject, I recommend watching them grapple with the early news about Obamacare implementation, which has suggested the program could work better than anticipated. It’s a bit like watching a speculator learn he’s bet his life savings on a failing company—which is to say, chock full of denial and elaborate self-delusion.
To soothe their troubled spirits and bridge the cognitive dissonance, Avik Roy of Forbes published a highly dishonest screed purporting to prove that insurance rates were about to skyrocket up. Scheiber continues,
“Obamacare drives up insurance premiums by up to 146 percent in California,†screamed The Daily Caller. Even after a succession of wonks highlighted the glaring flaws, the editorialists at The Wall Street Journal leaned on Roy to declare an “ObamaCare Bait and Switch.â€
I hope the Administration is preparing a big information campaign that will explain to everyone what’s expected next year, because I don’t think most people know. But other than that, I don’t see a train wreck coming.
Ed Kilgore discussed why the Right is so obsessed with Obamacare. Of course, many of them seriously believe it is socialism. But this reason stood out for me.
They think they’re on the right side of public opinion as well as of history. It’s sometimes hard to remember how rarely Republicans, even when they are winning elections, are on the positive side of public opinion on a specific issue. The polls showing consistent majorities of the public disliking Obamacare is a deeply satisfying phenomenon for the Right. It’s so satisfying, indeed, that conservatives to a remarkable extent almost never come to grips with the evidence that a sizable chunk of Obamacare opponents support a larger government role in health care—such as the socialist abomination of Medicare For All—and that an even larger chunk seem to favor nearly all the individual elements of the ACA. Never mind: consistent majorities oppose Obama’s namesake accomplishment, and that’s a firm rock on which all other political strategies and messages can and must depend.
I think that by November 2014, most of the electorate will have realized Obamacare isn’t so bad after all, and might even be doing some good. So whether it will have any real impact on the midterms remains to be seen.
Conservatives all KNOW Obamacare will fail, because all of the other Conservatives they know, tell them it will. ‘Jesus will make this happen, yes I know, ’cause my echo chamber tells me so!”
Especially, the high-priced pundits in newspapers and magazines, and on TV. You know, the ones who have great health care coverage from the MSM company, or Wingnut Welfare – and, of course, their Republican politicians, who have the Cadillac’s of health care plans, on state and federal levels.
I’m waiting to hear from all of the peckerwoods in Red States who won’t get the expansion of Medicaid because of their Republican governors and state legislatures paling politic’s, after they talk to their friends and relatives in Blue States, who’ll tell them, “… the program is working just fine, thanks for asking – and we’re sorry you don’t have it.”
Let’s see what happens when Zeke can’t get something in TX, that his cousin Zack gets, because he moved to CA, or NY.
There might be a cost for the Red State politicians who wanted to play politics with their citizens health and lives.
I’ve yet to purchase the “Obamacare Survival Guide” suggested by Dick Morris; I’m currently saving up for my year’s supply of freeze dried food and dooms day bunker.
Actually, I DO need to do some hurricane prep around here, I think we’re in for a bad hurricane season.
Doing ANYTHING to intervene in this archaic healthcare system is going to do some good. The fact that people like the provisions of Obamacare, just, apparently, not the name makes it a difficult sell for the repugs. I can hear them scream in delight now once insurance companies can deny coverage to sick people. YEAH for freedom.
Well the whole Altemeyer stuff shows the rw outsouces analytical thought to it’s leaders or figureheads, who are under no political or moral obligation to tell the truth about this stuff. That’s how we get deathpanels. The rw masses have been told Obamacare’s wrong by their intellectual leaders and that’s all they need to know.
I hope the Administration is preparing a big information campaign…
I doubt if they are (hapless at PR, after all), or if it would convince people. What convinces people (except right wingers) is success stories. My insurer in California, Kaiser Permanente, has been sending me the info about what’s coming down the road, that you are hoping the adminstration will be mailing out. At least Kaiser – a fairly progressive company – is apparently putting their best foot forward in trying to make this work, out west. With that, I am hopeful that we in California can get a successful exchange up and running in 2014, and with that, we should be able to quell some of the “Sky is Falling!” alarmist nonsense. Let’s hope.
I was shopping for my survival guide and ran across this deal at Amazon..Walmart wanted almost 12 bucks for just the survival guide alone. Amazon is offering free shipping if you buy the package below..It includes Glenn Beck’s.. Exposing the Truth About Guns. Talk about a sweet deal!
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Talk about a sweet deal!
$28.69 for a lobotomy?! Well, I’m sold… who needs Obamacare now?
Many state legislators in the 30 GOP-abducted states are trying their best to make ACA fail through non-cooperation. Mu guess is that ACA will STILL be better than the status quo because the status quo sucked so bad.
Hey ‘Gulag, I’m eating some borsht (and drinking some vodka, so I probly spelled burscht wrong) and it’s great! Thanks for the recipe!