At least, that’s the worry for Congressional Democrats:
Democratic leaders claim the bungled launch of Obamacare is just the latest news sensation — a media-stirred tempest that looks in the heat of the moment like it could upend the midterm election, but ends up fizzling well before voters head to the polls.
Some party strategists say they’re in denial.
And that perceived gap between party spin and facts on the ground is fueling worries that the White House and Democratic higher-ups aren’t taking the possible electoral blowback seriously enough or doing enough to shield their candidates.
I’ll warn you right up front there’s going to be a little bad language in this one, because there are times when nothing else will do. And this is about eight of those times.
First of all, I’d like to say that this blowback, if it’s real, couldn’t happen to a nicer group of industry- and jobs-destroying assholes. Secondly, I’m reminded very much of the Bush White House in 2006. The deteriorating situation in Iraq was exposing a degree of willful blindness and executive incompetence that the American people found intolerable. Congressional Republicans were screaming for action (remember the GOP outrage when Bush waited to fire Rumsfeld until after the election?) and getting nothing but soothing words from Bush, Rove, and the rest of the party leadership. Next thing you knew, Bush was introducing Madam Speaker Pelosi.
Well, I can tell you with complete confidence that the same thing is happening right now to the Democrats. The White House really seems to think they just need to get the website up and running, then everyone will be happy again. But there are five million Americans who have lost their insurance plans by government fiat, and they’re as mad as hell. Starting next year, another 50 to 80 million Americans will begin losing their existing employer coverage. Many will be forced onto the exchanges, especially kids and spouses. Most will be stuck with ObamaCare’s “defined benefits” of higher premiums coupled to higher deductibles and copays. And you can bet they’re going to be as mad as hell, too.
This isn’t a matter of getting a website up and running, although granted that would be nice for all the folks who are going to be stuck shopping there even if it is for things they don’t want. This isn’t a matter of tinkering at the margins of a law with a few kinks in it. What we have is a fundamentally shitty law doing real and lasting harm to millions and millions of real Americans. What we have here is willful blindness and executive incompetence that the American people ought to find intolerable.
And if that doesn’t result in a Fukushima-size tsunami against the Democrats next fall, then this nation is well and truly fucked.
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