Breaking Bad

Steve Benen notes the GOP Plan on health care reform is to stop it at all costs.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) of Iowa argued the other day that the public would likely blame Republicans if reform efforts fall apart, but Pelosi's vision of the landscape strikes me as more plausible.

Let's put the polls aside, at least for a moment, because they can be misleading. Generic questions about whether Americans support "health care reform" produce encouraging results, but there's a degree of superficiality to the numbers -- a few dishonest television ads can sway opinions fairly quickly.

Instead, consider the idea that the consequences of passing reform, after a few generations of attempts, would almost certainly be a huge boon to the majority, especially once the changes take place and unfounded fears prove baseless. It's why Bill Kristol demanded that Republicans block reform 15 years ago; it's one of the reasons why the right is fighting so hard now; and it's why negotiating with the minority in good faith seems like an enormous, and likely counter-productive, risk.

It creates an obvious incentive for the GOP -- kill reform or suffer electoral consequences -- and fear is a powerful motivator.

Hence the full court Village press to "break Obama." Let's face it, the Village doesn't like having the Democrats in charge. I've been saying this for months now, but it's nice to see somebody who actually gets paid to have opinions come up with the same conclusion.

This of course explains the craziness of the last week, the rise of birther silliness across the airwaves, and today's charges that the President is basically a cop-hating racist. The GOP knows it can go for the kill, and right now, we're seeing the jaws close on Obamacare.