art credit: angry.net
Just
before the Memorial Day weekend, The Spectator reported that
According
to this report, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave RINOs … more reason
to dig in their heels:
This
week in an interview with Reuters he said, “I don’t know how we get to 50
[votes] at the moment. But that’s the goal. And exactly what the composition of
that [bill] is I’m not going to speculate about because it serves no purpose.”
Let’s
count the ways that remark is foolish.
First,
it sends a signal to RINOs in the Senate like Bill Cassidy (R-Gutless) and
Susan Collins (R-Weak Knees) that McConnell isn’t going to fight very hard to
repeal Obamacare. Thus, they can be obstinate in their demands, knowing that
McConnell will eventually give in.
Second,
it boosts the morale of Obamacare proponents. For example, both Talking
Points Memo and the Daily
Kos could scarcely contain their glee in reporting McConnell’s
remarks.
Finally,
it discourages the Republican base. How many times has McConnell said repealing
Obamacare was a top priority? In 2012, McConnell insisted he
would repeal Obamacare if he became Senate Majority Leader. He reiterated those
sentiments the following year when he
told CPAC that Obamacare should be repealed “root and branch.” About a
month after Trump won the election, McConnell said the
“Obamacare repeal resolution will be the first item up in the New Year.” Now he
is, in effect, saying, “Gosh, this is too hard.” That sends the message to the
Republican base that he was never serious about Obamacare repeal to begin with.
It’s not a good idea going into the 2018 election with Republican voters
thinking, “Yep, Senate Republicans sold us out again.”
There
is nothing wrong with admitting that repealing Obamacare is going to be
difficult. You’d have to be sprinkling something pretty potent on your
breakfast cereal to think otherwise. But McConnell needed to do so in such a
way that rallies the base, lets RINOs know that they won’t have much leeway,
and puts Democrats on the defensive.
The
rest of the report is here. Main take-away: The GOP hides behind the label “Party
of Stupid.” It's better than being exposed as the Party of “Bought” – as in “Uniparty.”
