Republicans Demand Expansion of Government Funding for Healthcare
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The Republican party is now taking a political position radically opposed to their entire philosophical and strategic posture during the healthcare debate. Upset to learn that Sen. Ben Nelson may have won special funding guarantees to help his state provide funding for Medicaid in an economic climate where the state is facing record budget shortfalls and may have to cut funding, Sen. Lindsey Graham is now demanding full federal funding for his state’s Medicaid program. Republicans have jumped on the bandwagon and are now demanding that Medicaid funding for their states be expanded as well.
Is the Republican party actually lobbying in favor of expanded government-run health insurance? Or is it just playing politics, hoping to make such a fuss that it erodes unity in the 60-member Democratic caucus, in order to derail the entire reform effort? It’s an important question, because either the Republican party is little by little revealing it keeps no store in its own cherished anti-government-program politics or it is actually adopting the Democratic party’s confidence in the ability of government funding to help improve the quality of care available to those in need.
Either way, it looks as if the Republican party does not believe it can win the healthcare debate by relying on its customary attack on government-funded programs. Sen. Nelson has, if anything, demonstrated to Main Street America that one’s own household budget might actually be well served by an effective application of government funding for social programs. They are now confusing the language of attacks on “unfunded mandates” with the language of attacks on “government takeover”. The problem with the unfunded mandate is that states, municipalities or households will have to take on costs; the answer is more government funding, not less.
But more funding equates to a “government takeover” in the high art of Republican anti-government rhetoric. Of course, in all the most pressing cases of political spin, the hope is that no one will notice the factual inaccuracies or contradictions inherent in the latest spin. But this goes beyond spin, because Republican members of Congress are now asking for actual money for their states, a factual and budgetary contradiction to their politics against Pres. Obama’s efforts to shore up the economy throughout 2009.
The oddest thing about this new line of attack on the Democrats is that Republicans seem totally unafraid that by adopting the political goals of their opponents, they might lose support among their base. But a recent survey by Rasmussen suggests the Republican party is in trouble with its own base, with as few as 39% of registered Republicans interested in voting Republican in 2010, should a new conservative party arise, and only 18% of all voters inclined to support the Republican party.
If the conservative Tea Party rebellion should move from the soapbox to the ballot box, it might well beat the Republican Party, according to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey. In what the pollsters called a “three-way Generic Ballot test,” voters were asked in a national telephone survey to assume the Tea Party movement had become a political party and then to say whether they would be likely to support a Democratic, Republican, or Tea Party candidate for Congress in their districts.
Democrats drew 36 percent of all respondents, while 23 percent said the Tea Party would be their choice. Only 18 percent said they would be inclined to support a Republican candidate. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top, with 33 percent of the independent voters preferring the Tea Party, 25 percent choosing the Democratic Party, and only 12 percent preferring the Republicans. In what could be a real problem for the GOP, amongst registered Republicans, 33 percent of the Republicans favor the Tea Party to 39 percent choosing the Republican brand.
This atmosphere of desperation seems to be utterly lacking from the political commentary of the mainstream media. The “Republican brand” is treated as healthy and as credible, even as polls show the views they express losing popularity and alienating voters. Throughout 2009, polling numbers have shown a gap between the views of voters and the views propagated by the Republican leadership, yet Republicans have held firm to their belief that by sowing confusion and skepticism regarding Pres. Obama’s policies, they could gain seats anyway.
This latest tactic of vicious personal attacks on Sen. Nelson and Democratic leaders seems to be part of the same strategy, but rings hollow when cast against the expectations of conservative voters. The Republican leadership appears to be shifting its tactics and its opinions from day to day, as the challenge of defeating healthcare reform seems to be ever more daunting and the prospect of winning slips from their grasp. The response among conservative independents and even among registered Republicans seems to be a shift toward something like an entirely new party, even as the Republicans now are calling for a nationwide expansion of government-run health insurance, under Medicaid.
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