I remember the last time Republicans were this sure about an outcome. It was Nov. 5, 2012, and conservatives near and far were dancing on Obama’s grave, certain that murky rumors about the president’s Kenyan birth and Mitt Romney’s zingers about our Navy’s inability to handle a two-front war against Tsar Nicholas and the Kaiser would trump folks’ memory about the monthly hemorrhaging of 800,000 jobs under the able stewardship of our last GOP president.
We know how that one turned out, and it was a wonder to behold. Republicans everywhere were dazed, like a guy who stops by Hooters on a Friday evening hoping to sup on hot wings and flirt with his favorite waitress only to discover that the kitchen is closed and Tom Arnold is his server.
On Fox News, Karl Rove looked like a man who had just woken up in Tijuana next to a Big Lots mannequin and a drunk alpaca. The expression on his face was exquisite, and he continued to deny reality longer than Norma Desmond on a four-day mescaline and Tanqueray binge.
In fact, Republicans’ cocksure swagger leading up to the election spawned my favorite video of all time, even supplanting the one where Fabio gets hit in the face with a seagull while riding a roller coaster — a remarkable feat, given that the Fabio thing had all the essential elements of classic comedy, namely “Fabio” and “hit in the face with a seagull while riding a roller coaster.”
Of course, I’m referring to this video, in which Dick Morris correctly predicts that he’s a clueless jackass:
So now, nearly a year later, we’re told by the very same people who assured us of a GOP election-night triumph that Obamacare is a looming disaster that’s certain to fail.
Now, unlike the 2012 election, when they nominated Mitt Romney, who managed to change every part of himself during his campaign except his haircut, Republicans have remained in lockstep and laser-focused. They haven’t missed an opportunity to undermine Obamacare (even though they thought up and once lobbied for large portions of it) because to give Barack Obama a major policy win would be a huge political fail.
So as Obama began operating on our sick health care system, the Republicans stood by in dung-stained overalls, handing him Play-Doh Fun Factory scissors instead of scalpels and tossing Junior Mints from the balcony like ticker tape on V-J Day.
Here in Wisconsin, Scott Walker and his lackeys, who apparently think the way to fix health care on the state level is to spend more money to insure fewer people, rejected Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. As a policy, that really makes no sense, until you understand that anything that provides Wisconsin residents health care post-Obamacare will make Obamacare look more successful, and anyone who struggles to buy health care coverage post-Obamacare will likely blame Obamacare for his or her lot.
I’d be willing to bet the Walker administration’s opposition to Obamacare is also behind its recent decision to publish a set of scary projected premiums for the individual insurance market post-Obamacare — numbers that conveniently failed to take into account the subsidies many consumers will be eligible for under the health care law.
On a national level, Republican lawmakers have wasted Congress’ time with 41 attempted repeals of Obamacare, bullied private enterprises that could have helped educate the public (particularly young people, whose participation is key to health care reform’s success) about the law, and repeatedly threatened to shut down the government unless the Affordable Care Act is overturned.
In fact, Republicans have been so strident in their opposition to Obamacare, you might think James Madison had devoted an essay in the Federalist Papers to the importance of denying health care to people with suspicious-looking colon polyps.
One of the big tests for Obamacare is coming soon. The health care exchanges come online on Oct. 1, and we’ll start to see then whether health care reform as it’s currently structured is viable. I’m not going to be a Dick Morris and get into the jackass prediction business, but Republicans’ growing desperation suggests they believe there’s at least a chance Obamacare will succeed. Then again, no one knows.
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That said, something had to be done. Does it make sense that we spend more money per capita — by far — on health care than other industrialized countries, without attaining better health outcomes or covering all our citizens? Yes, all those socialistic nanny-staters outside our borders have realized health care savings that we could only dream of, and they’ve prevented their citizens from falling through the cracks like ours do. Universal health care just makes sense, and whether it’s Obamacare that gets us there or some kind of single-payer system, we should all be on board.
Maybe Obamacare will be the spectacular failure Republicans are predicting it will be. But remember, they’ve been spectacularly wrong before, and this time it’s more than their pride that’s on the line.
If Obamacare improves on our broken health care system and people begin to see its benefits for themselves, it’s unlikely they’ll forget how single-minded the naysayers were in their opposition. Indeed, it will be hard not to recall how assiduously Scott Walker, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, et al., worked to ensure that Americans with preexisting conditions remained screwed sideways.
And if that happens, ladies and gentlemen, the Republican Party as we know it will be toast.
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