Posted on 06/28/2012 5:43:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Republican Plan B is to repeal Obamacare on Day 1 of a Romney presidency.
Good luck with that.
First, today's Supreme Court decision will make it a lot harder to elect Mitt Romney. President Obama has just been handed a fearsome election weapon. 2012 is no longer exclusively a referendum on the president's economic management. 2012 is now also a referendum on Mitt Romney's healthcare plans. The president can now plausibly say that a vote for the Republicans is a vote to raise prescription drug costs on senior citizens and to empower insurance companies to deny coverage to children for pre-existing conditions. Those charges will hurt—and maybe hurt enough to sway the election.
Second, even if Republicans do win the White House and Senate in 2012, how much appetite will they then have for that 1-page repeal bill? Suddenly it will be their town halls filled with outraged senior citizens whose benefits are threatened; their incumbencies that will be threatened. Already we are hearing that some Republicans wish to retain the more popular elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Which means the proposed 1-page bill will begin to grow.
(VIDEO AT LINK)
Third, Mitt Romney has promised to grant states waivers from the obligations of the ACA. Not all states will ask for such waivers. Many will eagerly institute the ACA, which (let us not forget) includes large immediate grants of federal aid.
Fourth, Republicans will find the task of writing their "replace" law even more agonizing than the Democrats found original passage. The party has no internal consensus on what a replacement would look like. Worse, any replacement of the law's popular elements will require financing. But where is that money to come from? New taxes are unacceptable. The proceeds of "closing loopholes" are already spoken for—that's how President Romney has promised to finance his promise to cut the top rate of tax 28%. And he's also promised to increase defense spending.
Fifth, the clock is ticking. President Obama passed the ACA in the second year of his administration. A President Romney will have to pass repeal in the first year of his, because the law goes into effect in 2014. By then, states will have to have their exchanges up and working. And states that have put themselves through that work will not be very eager to see Washington undo it. If replacement does not happen in the first 100 days, it won't happen at all—that is, it won't happen as a single measure, but rather will take the form of dozens of small incremental changes adopted episodically over the next 20 years.
The outlook then: Even if Republicans win big in 2012, they will have to fight inch by bloody inch for changes they could have had for the asking in 2010. Truly, this is Waterloo—a Waterloo brought about by a dangerous combination of ideological frenzy, poor risk calculation, and a self-annihilating indifference to the real work of government.
Obama has to explain why Romney’s plan is raising taxes on the middle class? Actually, he’s given up on the middle class already. He believes that others, coupled with imaginary voters will be enough.
Frum states that health care will replace the economy as the number one issue in the election.
No, it’s just another reminder of how much worse Americans are now than four years ago.
Mmyeah. Dave, I’ll tell you like I told Peggy Noonan: There’s a reason they hired you to write the speeches and other people to make policy.
Romney probably does not have the courage to repeal it. However how about the protests of those of us who are being enslaved and taxed out of existence. How about those of us defending the rights of our children to their property and their lives.
As far as the protests of the old are concerned, give it a few years and the death panels will have done away with them. And it will be the rest of us whose parents you people just murdered you will have to face.
the commies isolated and threatened roberts..
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/05/obama-threatens-the-supreme-court-again/
Our real battle is probably with GlaxoSmithKlin and not really the Leftwingtards.I believe you're right.
IIRC, the pharmaceutical companies really, REALLY wanted Obamacare.
I’m sure David Frum HOPES the Republicans will fail. He hasn’t liked the Republican party since the elites were taken down a peg or two by Reagan first, and most recently by the Tea Partiers, thus his comments about ‘ideological frenzy’. For some reason, it is only conservatives who are ever accused of that.
End it. Don’t mend it.
As crazy as we all thought he was at the time, America would have been much better off, had Ross Perot stayed in the 1992 race and beaten George H.W. Bush and Clinton that November.
Frum is right. War’s over, we lost.
While it would warm my heart if the GOP developed enough spine to actually repeal anything, I’m going to prepare for street fighting anyway. Just.In.Case.
Can any one name an entitlement that’s been stopped?
Frum is a loon, and an insult to even pseudo-conservatives.
I think this is the first time that I’ve agreed with him in the last five years at least.
So many desperate people who really seem to think that the weasel will save their chickens from the wolf.
2012 is no longer exclusively a referendum on the president’s economic management. 2012 is now also a referendum on Mitt Romney’s healthcare plans.
WHAT IS THIS GUY SMOKING? INDEED, THE ECONOMY IS NOT THE ONLY [DOMESTIC] ISSUE NOW IN NOVEMBER. THERE IS ERIC HOLDER AND THE FAST & FURIOUS AFFAIR/COVER-UP, AND NOW THE SUBSTANCE OF OBAMACARE WILL BE AN ISSUE AS TO COSTS, NEW BUREAUCRACIES, ETC.
Republicans will find the task of writing their “replace” law even more agonizing than the Democrats found original passage.
HA. DOES HE THINK THERE IS NO SUPPORT FOR JUST REPEALING THE DAMN THING FIRST AND THEN WORKING ON A NEW PLAN?
[By 2014} states will have to have their exchanges up and working.
HE IS DELUSIONAL, SERIOUSLY SO. IF OBAMA LOSES IN NOVEMBER, ALL WORK ON IMPLEMENTATION WILL STOP IN ITS TRACKS.
Even if Republicans win big in 2012, they will have to fight inch by bloody inch for changes they could have had for the asking in 2010.
WHO IS HE KIDDING? BEFORE NOVEMBER, PELOSI, REID, AND OBAMA CARED NOT ONE IOTA FOR WHAT THE REPUBLICANS THOUGHT. AND AFTER THE 2010 ELECTIONS, THE SENATE WOULD NOT GO ALONG WITH ANY REPUBLICAN PLAN TO AMEND OBAMACARE.
Truly, this is Waterloo—a Waterloo brought about by a dangerous combination of ideological frenzy, poor risk calculation, and a self-annihilating indifference to the real work of government.
PERHAPS, BUT PERHAPS BECAUSE HE IS UPSIDE-DOWN, HE CAN’T TELL THE FRENCH FROM THE PRUSSIANS. IF THE MANDATE IS INDEED A TAX, THEN ALL THE EXEMPTIONS/WAIVERS HANDED OUT BY SIBELIUS AFTER THE PASSAGE OF OBAMACARE MIGHT BE VOID; PLUS, IF THE BILL THAT WAS ULTIMATELY PASSED IN 2010 ORIGINATED IN THE SENATE, THEN IT MIGHT BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL, BECAUSE ALL BILLS PERTAINING TO RAISING OF REVENUE MUST ORIGINATE IN THE HOUSE (PER THAT ANNOYING TECHNICALITY KNOWN AS THE CONSTITUTION).
SORRY THIS IS SO LONG.
The length is no problem. The shouting (excessive use of capitalization) is a bit annoying though.
Reading capitalized posts is like eating raw, still bloody spaghetti!
My apologies. I do it to distinguish the text I’ve copied from my commentary. I will try another method.
Likewise to spaghetti-eaters everywhere: mea culpa.
I seem to recall that in about 1775 the conventional wisdom was that the colonies had no chance in opposing the edicts of King George. Perhaps Frum should read the declaration we celebrate on July 4th.
“President Obama has just been handed a fearsome election weapon”
There’s being a RINO, there’s being a lib, there’s being a socialist, and then there’s being plain stupid. Frum is not qualified to be a pundit.
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