The public option will come someday thanks to the bill they passed. I remember reading a hysterical Republican in my college newspaper ranting about how the Democrats were building a bill designed to be inadequate just so the public would someday clamor for government insurance to protect them from increasingly rapacious private insurers. I don't think his Democratic conspiracy theory is true, but they certainly knew it was the first step towards better health policy.
The baby boomers are retiring in a terrible economic environment right after their 401(k)s got wiped out. Their children and grandchildren have college debts to pay and no savings. They may vote for Tea Partiers now but when the baby boomers find out that neither the Tea Party nor their Republican masters care about paying their health bills then it's all over for the movement.
And look at what Nate Silver may have uncovered regarding the Latino vote:
The GOP got their historic win in the House only by sacrificing future electoral success (assuming they keep to their current path).
"Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me...God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist." -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov
"Hal grabs life by the balls and doesn't let you do that [to] hal."
"I hereby declare myself master of the known world."
StarshipTitanic wrote:
The baby boomers are retiring in a terrible economic environment right after their 401(k)s got wiped out. Their children and grandchildren have college debts to pay and no savings. They may vote for Tea Partiers now but when the baby boomers find out that neither the Tea Party nor their Republican masters care about paying their health bills then it's all over for the movement.
I don't think they will vote against the Tea party. As long as the tea party can portray the democrats as a bunch of people who keep blocking the policies implemented by them, people will continue to vote for the tea party.
Humans are such funny creatures. We are selfish about selflessness, yet we can love something so much that we can hate something.
ray245 wrote:I don't think they will vote against the Tea party. As long as the tea party can portray the democrats as a bunch of people who keep blocking the policies implemented by them, people will continue to vote for the tea party.
This is naive. The propaganda won't work if people start losing actual benefits like insurance for their kids until they are 26, the right to get insurance even with preexisting conditions, etc due to actual Tea Party cuts or repeals. A lot also want to privatize Social Security, which didn't work even when the Republicans had the presidency and the economy was fine. Republicans can get away with ignoring poor people, but they can't anger a middle class that doesn't have the financial resources to survive.
"Man's unfailing capacity to believe what he prefers to be true rather than what the evidence shows to be likely and possible has always astounded me...God has not been proven not to exist, therefore he must exist." -- Academician Prokhor Zakharov
"Hal grabs life by the balls and doesn't let you do that [to] hal."
"I hereby declare myself master of the known world."
