Op-Ed: No one really has any clue about what’s going to happen in the midterms
posted at 9:31 pm on June 23, 2014 by Allahpundit
The most obvious indicator that there’s not a lot of progress on healthcare in this Congress is the fact that no one seems to know what’s going to happen on Nov. 4. Yes, the GOP hasn’t put all the House Democrats in. No, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hasn’t said one word about that. And it’s not clear that McConnell has offered a single new health care proposal that the House has yet to pass.
Which is to say, we don’t have a lot of reason to think that Congress is making the right moves with its health-care reform agenda. It’s not that it’s all going to go to hell. What it is, though, is that the political circumstances around the Affordable Care Act are going to be far more complex than anyone is thinking.
How’s that? Just count up, and you’re going to find three or four fundamental reasons why nothing will get done, by any of the parties, until the November 4 deadline. And that’s all before you take into account the fact that President Obama’s approval rating has sunk to levels few would have pegged as competitive in his first term, and that there’s now a serious risk that Democratic turnout will be significantly diminished by the prospect of a Republican House.
Let’s go.
As of yet, nothing has been agreed on in terms of a legislative framework, with any of the major Democratic factions. The Senate has approved a bill. The House is working on its own bill. The White House has offered no framework beyond saying that he has “thought about” some sort of reform.
The GOP’s strategy in the House is to make it look like it is the GOP’s plan, rather than the Democrats’, as it tries to move it through both chambers. Meanwhile, there’s nothing in the bill to which the Senate GOP could agree
