…as Byron York explains:
Say you’re a Democratic member of Congress. You proudly cast your vote for Obamacare, you cheered when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed it as the achievement of a generation and you scoffed at Republicans who vowed to repeal it. Now you’re running for re-election, and a voter asks: What is the most important thing you’ve done in the last two years?
The answer should be easy. In passing the national health care bill, you accomplished something your party dreamed of for decades. It was your most important vote, and now is the time to take credit for it.
Except it’s not.
What our democratic congressional friends fail to grasp, or didn’t bother to grasp or ignored when it was explained to at the time is the public overwhelming hated Obamacare when it was proposed, they hated it when it was negotiated, they hated it when it came up for a vote. In Massachusetts they hated it so much that they choose to send a relatively unknown republican to the senate on the promise of being the vote against Obamacare. When the deals were made it was hated and when it finally passed it was hated. And six months after it is passed it’s not only STILL hated but the fact that the public made their hatred very clear to congress and was ignored means that there is no easy way to explain it away.
Congress has forgotten that in reality they are temps with 2 and 6 year contracts. Any person who has been a temp knows that if you want to get your contract renewed it’s a bad idea to tell the people who make that decision to go to hell and hope they forget you said it in six months or so.
In 2008 the public made a critical mistake and got the government they deserved, in 2010 the congress made a critical mistake and they will shortly get the election they deserve.