That is all just rhetoric, window dressing that both sides find easier to use than selling on the issues. If you go to local party meetings what you have is for every million Republicans or Democrats you have 50 people that will support and help. Of that 50 there are a small group that are willing to work a phone bank, an even small group that will do door to doors, and an even smaller group that will attend party meeting outside of an election. The smallest fraction are the true believers; the ones that would buy that Mitt Romney is a murderer and if you disagree with me oh he likes killing dogs, the ones that think the Obama was born in Kenya if you give me a birth certificate it is a fake and he eats dogs too. That said those people really are not listened to they might be used though.
The polls I am quoting used random samples of sufficient sizes that the probability of them just happening to get only those handful of true believers each time is mind bogglingly small. I know being a reasonable Republican you don't want to believe that somewhere between 30 and 50% of Republicans think Obama is an illegitimate president born outside the US but multiple polls suggest that is the case. Multiple Polls from multiple polling firms across a three year period cannot show roughly similar numbers unless those numbers are pretty much true.
How do you convince your constituents that you can negotiate with the President if a minimum of 30%, oh and by the way those are the 30% who are going to show up for primaries think he is not the legitimate POTUS?
I don't think that Republicans are terrified even if it works they know that there will be elements of it that don't work. Long run the ACA helps them with their base, fundraising, and it provides something that can later be reformed. Again I don't think that this is about the ACA or a health care related concession in exchange for the continuing resolution but for larger budget reforms in exchange for the debt ceiling with the shutdown for leverage. The political damage for Republicans and the shutdown has already been dealt there is no reason to end the shutdown before debt ceiling negotiations begin. This is not about behavior to reward to condemn, that is just playing the blame game and enabling more rhetoric. There is no such thing as good or bad situations there are just situations, deal with it and we can have champagne and tears later.
I agree that I think this drags on into the debt limit which is a good thing as the debt limit is the bigger problem. I cannot agree that the Democrats should reward this kind of behavior by caving in any meaningful way. N other shutdown has ever been framed in this way about a particular law before. Even if as you say it is really about the budget, which I just do not think is the case, as the Republicans have not framed it in this way at all. They already got with a couple percent of the budget number that they wanted with the last senate CR.
I don't even think that the President needs to go that far. I think that real budget concessions will end the shutdown and give him a debt ceiling till after the 2014 elections.
I sure hope not. As I said I was not at all comfortable with that list. I just am not sure what you give the Republicans to make them save face and move on from this disaster in the making.
The US has the most expensive healthcare in the world and that is the biggest problem.
And we have the most expensive healthcare because we are the only industrialized country left that doesn't have some sort of gov't run or subsidized healthcare for the majority of the population.
Notice the two gov't run healthcare systems have had the lowest cost increases over the past decade?
There are some parts of the ACA designed to try and reduce the costs of healthcare and I think over time they will curb the reduction of costs somewhat. Just moving uninsured people from going to the ER system to regular Drs should save a huge amount of money.
The only thing that is going to really reduce costs is some sort of single payer system even if it is just for the most basic levels of care.
I had Romneycare while I was in law school. The cost became a bit higher because to pay for it I had to use my education loans. Coverage was an extra 2k and change a year that I was indifferent about paying but not pissed off. I don't have a problem with the ACA but I do think that a short delay on the mandate won't hurt anyone. I think that the Health Insurance Marketplace is the best thing for investigating buying insurance and does simplify it. However; it still is a big decision for anyone or a family to make and taking time to investigate the purchase should not be penalized. Rather than a year penalty delay perhaps a waver for those who are interested but have not made a final choice.
Putting aside the ACA for a moment the shutdown my be brought to an end with just an intent to negotiate on budget items. The rhetoric of all of this is way too high. The Democrats are saying that Republicans are "taking their ball and going home" and that is just childish and stupid. Now it has been along time since I was was on the playground but I do recall if you want the child bring back the ball you don't taunt them as they walk away to get them to play.
Well people without insurance do have up to the end of March 2014 before they have to decide what they want to do. That is about six months from now and should give most people enough time to figure it out.
The initial open enrollment for the ACA was extended longer then normal just for that reason. No one will pay a penalty as long as they have health insurance fore the first of April. People that sign up for plans now will have coverage start on Jan first of 2014. If you wait and sign up next year then I think there is a month long period before the policy kicks in.
