Why ObamaCare is failing

14 March 2010

Anyone looking for an explanation of why, despite the supposedly unimpeachable logic of the thing and the Democrats' majority in both houses of Congress, Obama's health care plan is going down the tubes should look no further than these two, succinct explanations:

First, Forbes magazine's Shikha Dalmia:

"Even if Democrats extract the votes to put ObamaCare over the top, it will at best be a Pyrrhic victory for them. Regardless of the outcome, this monstrosity might cost the Democrats the Congress this November, ruin the party for a long time and prematurely render Barack Obama a lame duck president for the rest of his term. . . . In fact, the real reason why ObamaCare is so unpopular is that it is proposing a giant expansion of the entitlement state precisely when this state everywhere is coming apart: here and abroad; at the federal level and the state; in the public sector and the private. Suggesting a giant government takeover of a sixth of the economy can’t be a popular selling point in a country whose DNA has a programmed hostility to Big Government.”

Second, Commentary magazine's Jennifer Rubin:

"Something more fundamental is going on here: Obama seems not to respect his fellow citizens — the uninformed rubes who crashed the health-care town halls — nor care what they think. All his energy now is devoted to disregarding their strong aversion to his idea of health-care reform and forcing through a vote on something the public doesn’t want. It’s hard to bond with the American people ... when your agenda conveys disdain for their concerns."

Republicans have lots of long-term problems of their own, but at the moment they are blessed by having the best of enemies.