The White House claims it’s above worrying about the politics of health care — they just want a bill passed this week.
Good thing, because politics in Washington could become a lot more ferocious and partisan, whether their plan flies or not.
“If they pull off this crazy scenario they are putting together, they are going to destroy a lot of the comity in the House,” said Brian Darling, a congressional expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Even in the current, highly partisan atmosphere, it can get a lot worse.”
Obama’s latest version of his health care overhaul has attracted no Republican support, so Democrats will try to pass it with narrow House and Senate majorities.
The long-contemplated move has sparked hard feelings on both sides, with Democrats saying they tried with no success to work with Republicans, and Republicans complaining they are being railroaded.
“It’s a huge price to say he passed something,” Darling said of President Obama.
The administration’s stance on health care reform and their method for passing it fly squarely in the face of public opinion, with polls showing a majority don’t want health care reform, but they do want partisan cooperation in Congress.
“It’s pretty clear by some of the polling numbers that we’re not doing this for sheer political benefit,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “You can swing a cat in this town and hit somebody that believe that the president should just give this up for political considerations.”
An Associated Press poll last week found more than four in five Americans want the final health care plan to have bipartisan support, while 68 percent said Democrats should keep working with Republicans, rather than pass a bill without both parties’ support.
The latest Gallup poll measured the president’s approval rating at an all-time low of 46 percent. Rasmussen Reports found Obama’s approval at 44 percent.
Some Republicans are warningObama that pushing through health care reform will impair — if not destroy — his prospects for passing other tough agenda items like immigration reform and financial regulatory overhaul.
“I think it’s going to be as partisan as I have ever seen it,” said Rep. Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican and House deputy whip. “It will prove the speaker will do any thing in any way to ram that agenda through, so it’s going to be a pretty unforgiving atmosphere.”
For Obama, the political calculation boils down to the risk of losing versus the risk of winning and having to deal with the political fallout later. Doubling down and failing on health care would make him look weak heading into midterm elections, and could hurt his party at the polls.
Still, others aren’t so sure. Clark Ervin, a political expert at the Aspen Institute, said Republicans want to portray the fallout from health care reform as politically cataclysmic because it suits them politically.
“I don’t know that it would be post-apocalyptic,” Ervin said. “Seems to me the president has no choice but to do it. Are Republicans going to beat their chests and shout from the mountaintops? Yes, they will.”
