Political Suicide: A Democrat tells why he voted for ObamaCare

Before the passage of ObamaCare, poll after poll showed that it was a stinker with the electorate. Even today, Gallop shows us that ObamaCare is still stinking up the joint. So why would a Democrat vote for such a bill?  Howard Fineman from Newsweek gives us an answer. 

Newsweek: A Democratic senator I can't name, who reluctantly voted for the health-care bill out of loyalty to his party and his admiration for Barack Obama, privately complained to me that the measure was political folly, in part because of the way it goes into effect: some taxes first, most benefits later, and rate hikes by insurance companies in between.

Besides that, this Democrat said, people who already have coverage will feel threatened and resentful about helping to cover the uninsured—an emotion they will sanitize for the polltakers into a concern about federal spending and debt.

On the day the president signed into law the "fix-it" addendum to the massive health-care measure, two new polls show just how fearful and skeptical Americans are about the entire enterprise.  If the numbers stay where they are—and it's not clear why they will change much between now and November—then the Democrats really are in danger of colossal losses at the polls.

I say this even though I was one of those who always said that Obama would get a bill passed—and that, politically, he personally had no choice but to get it done if he wanted to have a successful presidency. But his reputation as a can-do guy was purchased at a very high political cost.

Ah, so there it is. Notice no consideration for the people this bill will be imposed upon, just the party and Obama.

I myself always thought too many Democrats’ self-preservation would kick in and ObamaCare would have crashed and burned. Sure, there are those true believers in progressive ideology that would have happily sacrificed their political futures for ObamaCare. Obama and Nancy Pelosi immediately come to mind.

I also imagined that there were those Democrats of the self-serving nature. They would vote for anything if the price were right. Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson immediately come to mind. Harry Reid too would probably fit in this category as well. Look for this scoundrel to get a quid pro quo somewhere down the road.

What I would like to know now is if any Democrats are regretting their vote or are they resigned to losing and will just vote the party line because they have nothing to lose.

Via: Memeorandum

Via: Newsweek