Why do the Republicans think that they will profit (politically) off defeating reform?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

Chuck Grassley, douchebag that he is, seems to sense that it's going to hurt them NOT help them next year, so he's trying to somewhat be with the program when it comes to working on health insurance reform but you have DeMint, Inhofe out there already crowing about having defeated health insurance reform (and Inhofe tipped his hand about his work on ensuring that "cap and trade" never sees the light of day in the Senate) and Obama specifically and I'm certain that most of the Repukes and right-wingers actually probably have visions of 1994 in their heads but I don't quite understand how they think that defeating health insurance reform is going to "endear" them to the masses come November next year. Although, I must admit that I don't know know nor do I want to know how the wingnut mind actually works. I've heard it's a scary place to be (their minds) and, frankly, I don't want to die.

Also, lost in all of the theatrics about not getting something done this year, don't we have pretty much most of next year to continue working things out? I don't think it's a good idea to delay, delay, and delay by any means but everybody, particularly the Repukes, are acting as though if they keep something from being passed this year that next year such work would be off-limits. I'm not naive about the fact that next year is an election year and the political calculations surrounding it but to me that's NO excuse for not continuing to work on things that need to be done. Why is it by the end of this year or BUST (for Obama and/or health insurance reform)? I just don't get it.

So, back to my original question, does anybody here believe that if (great maker forbid) health insurance reform doesn't pass before Congress recesses for the year (do they really leave in September????), what are the odds that the Republicans will have actually triumphed over President Obama and it will have increased their chances of a 1994-style take over of Congress next year? I mean, :wtf: are they thinking? "Oh yeah, we killed health insurance reform that might've helped you. Vote for us!!!!" Is THAT what they're really banking on??? I know that we all have our gripes with what Obama and (most of) the Democrats in Congress are proposing and that what we end up with now will be far from perfection but at least it will keep the momentum going for change and kill the inertia for maintaining the status quo.

Do more people than not want the system to remain unchanged? Back in 1993, a credible, if somewhat weak, case could be made that the system was working fine for most people and that people didn't want any huge massive systemic changes (and it wasn't handled very well by the Clintons either despite their best intentions IMHO) but is the issue resonating with most people in a way that suggests that they are fundamentally happy with the way things are right now? Or is what we are seeing right now more of a matter of what we are being TOLD to think and what we are being TOLD might happen?

[TheKentuckian]

1. It appears to have paid off before. See the early 90's.

I'm not saying it would play the same way again but with the hold they have on the media, gobs of corporate money, and a base that is insane, the danger is omnipresent.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. Are the Repukes going to win because our "base will be depressed"

because their "base" will be energized? I'm trying to remember exactly what happened in 1994 but that WAS before American's 14-year "experiment" with all or most branches of the government being run by the Repukes. Plus, there were interest groups like Christian Coalition and *leaders* like Newt Gingrich that were much more powerful and ascendant back then and have either been disgraced and/or greatly diminished in terms of their influence. I have my doubts about whether people will be duped again into giving the Repukes more power after next year but they still have a lot of leverage via the corporate whore media. OTOH President Obama doesn't have anywhere near the kind of "baggage" that Clinton had coming into the job and had a clear mandate.

[wryter2000]

7. What happened in 1994

Clinton raised taxes to fix Reagan/Bush I's massive deficits. The Repigs called it "the biggest tax hike in the history of the world." (I guess they researched the Caesars' tax policies to verify the accuracy of that statement...NOT.)

Anyway, only Dems voted for it, doing the right thing for the country, and then many of them lost their seats in 1994.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. And this year's stimulus seems to have become that year's "tax hike"

The Repukes DO have a slight problem with the stimulus that they didn't have with the "tax hike" back in 1993, specifically that 2 of their (current) members voted for it.

[wryter2000]

11. Plus

The American public has noticed that they're getting screwed by the R's policies. There are some who cling to them, but not like in 1994.

[ProSense]

10. It didn't work on Iraq withdrawal.

Cost them every election since 2005, and ensured that Obama won by nearly 10 million votes.

The Republicans are suckers.

[kenfrequed]

2. Yes but every day

That premiums and co payments and medication costs increase will be another day taken away from future republican candidates. This could kill them.

[democrat_patriot]

3. Because they are very good at what they do.

With the help of the media I might add. They will frame this as "we have saved America from socialism, deficits and the evil government".

Senators only have to worry about their state, not the whole country. If they're constituents are dumb enough to believe it than they are all set.

And the money they make from the healthcare and big pharma lobbies - they can outspend any rivals and win re-election, when the topic will have moved on to something else - like guns, gay marriage or abortion. (Which will innocently happen when the MSM finds some new wedge issue to obsess about).

[uponit7771]

4. Because they know dems have no message discipline, Obama out in front the most

...and there are few who have his back.

[wryter2000]

6. Because they know the media will spin it as a "huge defeat for Obama"

It'll be the end of "Yes, we can." It will affirm the media's insistence that this is a "center/right" country and that corporatists are "centrists."

Once upon a time in this country, we had news people who would have looked at the issue as one regarding health care. Now, our news models consider everything a question of whether Republicans or Democrats/Conservatives or Liberals "won."

[Aramchek]

8. Because the Insurance Industry will profit

[DrToast]

12. Republicans can't kill it. They don't have the votes to.

If health care reform doesn't pass, it will be a failure of the Democratic party.

[HopeOverFear]

13. Because they have in the past

Just look at the history.