Eat The Public

Yggy finally starts circling around the conclusion I've had for a while now about the GOP efforts to repeal health care:  they may not be able to repeal it, but they CAN make sure it is implemented so badly that the public demands they effectively kill it if they get back into power.

Maybe. It should be said, though, that there’s really no precedent for a GOP president taking the ax to a major program. Small, highly targeted programs like Section 8 housing vouchers or legal services for the indigent get the axe when Republicans run things. But cutting spending has not normally been an important priority. Cutting taxes, busting unions, gutting enforcement of various regulations, hiking spending on baroque missile defense schemes, that’s what conservative governance is all about.

The only reason you would try to seriously pare back subsidies is if you felt that increasing budget deficits were a bad thing. But conservatives don’t think deficits are a problem so there’s really nothing here.

But from a political standpoint, making the program implemented in such an odious manner as to be far worse than the status quo and then blaming the Democrats will work if the GOP gets back into power.  Now, whether or not they can get back into power remains to be seen.