I suspect the controversial issue of Who Loves The Flag More will be discussed often.
In the House, I suppose it’s just barely conceivable… But in the Senate? Are there even enough seats up to make that possible?
I also don’t see the NSA thing coming to the front because it crosses political lines in such a way that its hard for either side to get fully behind. It would seem to be a good issue for the GOP to run against Obama but since they are generally pro-nationalism and anti-civil rights they can’t really put their heart into it. Meanwhile the opposite situation in true for the Dems.
I predict the GOP will still rail against the ACA even thought they can’t really do anything about it. Since the roll out has been bumpy its the one piece of bad news that goes in their favor so they have to run with it.
I suspect that both sides are going to blame the other side for the dysfunction in Congress, claiming that their side is being practical and reasonable while the other side has been extreme and uncompromising. This will go over well with the core of both parities but I think the Dems. message will play better with any real moderates that remain.
They need Democratic votes. And I’m not talking about total repeal, just repeal of parts of it, like the individual mandate, the risk corridors, the minimum coverage requirements that are forcing elderly people to purchase maternity services.
Liberal dopers love to say that the public hates ACA but loves what’s in it. Well, let’s get rid of what they hate and see how well the law stands up.
You can’t seriously think any of that is going to be an issue in the 2014 midterms.
You keep bringing up the temporary ACA risk corridors without responding to my question in the other thread about how they can be bad while the permanent risk corridors for Medicare Part D are good.
As far as mandates and minimum coverage, without them, the law fails to accomplish its purpose and we would be back where we were.
21 Dem seats are up for reelection. If the Republicans run the table and keep the 15 they have running and take all 21 Dem seats they would be at 66 votes. That leaves them 1 vote short, so it would require a D to play along. Possible I suppose, but highly unlikely.
FWIW, I think the Republicans have a good shot at picking up 8 seats in the Senate:
Alaska
Arkansas
Iowa
Louisiana
Montana
North Carolina
South Dakota
West Virginia
I would be happy if the number ends up being 5 or less but at this point I don’t see how that happens.
You’d be amazed at how much a truly disastrous election can focus minds. If Republicans win eight seats it’ll have Democrats in all but the most safe blue states scrambling.
Remember that the Medicare catastrophic coverage act got repealed overwhelmingly in the face of voter anger. If 2014 looks a lot like 2010, that’ll tell Democrats it wasn’t a fluke and they’d be wise to get the ACA monkey off their backs.
How’d that work out for ya last time, Hoss?
:dubious:
Dude, the Democrats are not going to override their own President in order to get rid of their greatest achievement as a party since the Johnson administration.
That will never, ever happen in any conceivable universe.
Haven’t you learned by now that the ACA is something you’ll get no traction running against?
But this time it’s really real!
BTW, it appears Tea Partiers and liberals agree on at least one issue: NSA surveillance.
Which will not necessarily make it an election issue. Not unless someone actually runs on it.
Does that mean extremists are paranoid?
No, but it does mean that They are out to get the extremists.
Here’s at least one billionaire ready to spend big on the climate-change-action side, and try to make it an election issue.
Wonder if that will work?
Depending on how the Supreme Court decides in the case of the Obama recess appointments I imagine we will hear more and more about the supposed abuses of power by this administration.
The always charming Darrell Issa is already turning up the volume on this issue and seems intent on dragging Hillary into the story as well.
Somehow I don’t think Obama’s recess appointments are going to appear all that scary to the voters.
Not the point. If the Court rules in a way limiting the use of recess appointments it will be used by the Fox spin machine and R’s like Issa to scare their base. Did you read the story I linked to? Issa goes on about Obama’s “imperial presidency” and what a threat he is to the nation. I expect this line of blather to pick up steam as the fall elections approach. A Supreme Court ruling against the Obama administration in this case will be pointed at as just another case of how undemocratic and power hungry he is.