The GOP's new strategery

Consider the following two passages from The Hill's top story, "In shift, GOP wants O-Care fix." The first is the publication's portrayal of, indeed, a fundamental "shift":

Weeks ago, many Republicans said ObamaCare ... was too broken to fix. But now, the [House] GOP is drafting legislation that aims to do just that.

The second--a quote from a GOP congressman--elaborates on the first:  

Before [ObamaCare] went into effect, the only goal is to stop it, now the goal is still stop it, but I don't want to treat people harshly.

Let's summarize the two passages in one. The House GOP, having re-assessed its thoroughgoing confidence in Obamacare's hopeless unworkability, is now crafting legislation to fix Obamacare, because while the party's former goal was to stop it, its goal now is--to stop it. 

Got it?

No doubt the GOP's deeper current of conviction (sorry for abusing that word) runs in drowning Obamacare as opposed to shoring it up, hence we can safely dismiss any advertised GOP notion of sudden solicitude for the law. Each of its coming "fixes" will come only with a saboteur's intent--as does the "Keep Your Health Plan Act," the aforementioned legislation being drafted. A more honest title would be the "Let's Limit the Risk Pool So That Everyone's Premiums Soar Act."

Yet the really intriguing angle of Republicans' hammering insincerity is this: What we might have here is failure to communicate with the hardest-core GOP base. Will they "get it"? Will they comprehend that their unctuous congressfolk have in no way been stricken by some acute desire to actually help?--that the GOP's every proposed "fix" is but a cynical ruse to bamboozle the marginal independent vote?  

For the GOP to trust that its base gets the joke is to tax a lot of base minds.

So onto the stumps it must go next year, vowing to fix what it also swears it's trying to kill. Yes with the GOP you get clarity, always clarity--and of course loads of sincerity.

 

Comments

[AnneJ]

They don't want to "treat people harshly"? Now what is that supposed to mean? They don't want it to look so obvious that they hate poor people and wish they would just die off already? What do they think $40 billion in cuts to SNAP benefits is? Perhaps they were shaken when one of their own, Governor John Kasich in Ohio expressed concerned about his party's "war on the poor"? Or is he now going to be kicked out of the party for uttering those blasphemous words?

[Peter G]

You know what they say, spare the rod and you deprive yourself of the pleasure of beating children.

[R.C. Chile]

When Republicans want to 'fix' Social Security,Medicare and Obamacare I think they are using the Veterinarian meaning of the word.

[mdblanche]

@AnneJ,
It means they think the poor, and at least a dozen other groups, aren't actually people.

As for the GOP base, I'm sure they're not going to get the joke. Their reaction should be fun to watch.

[Peter G]

We are now in a position to answer the question you posed. No they do not get it. See Erickson's latest.

[AnneJ]

Peter, I just saw the comments section under Erickson's article. You're right, they don't get it, but that's hardly surprising, now is it?