Fred Barnes, in the Wall Street Journal today, laments the Obamacare push for sweeping change of the health-care industry, which is happening despite wide and vociferous public opposition and in spite of Washington tradition. Passing it won't stop the opposition, he said:
Opposition to ObamaCare is not limited to conservatives and Republicans. Independents have increasingly turned against liberal-style health reform. On Oct. 8, Gallup reported "one of the largest declines in support" for ObamaCare was among independents, falling in one month from 37% to 26%. On Oct. 21, Gallup said that by nearly 2 to 1 (36% to 19%) independents predicted they'd oppose the final health-care reform bill to come out of Congress. Even the undecided are skeptical. "In general, Americans who are undecided on health care legislation predict it is more likely to make their own situations worse rather than better, especially in terms of cost," Gallup said on Oct. 22... Only once in recent decades has Congress inadvertently prompted a protest so formidable that it had to reverse itself almost overnight. In 1988, it passed the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act to protect seniors against ruinous medical costs. Fees paid by middle- and upper-income seniors were to finance the program. Seniors rebelled because they were required to pay too much, on a means-tested basis, for coverage that would disproportionately help others and because it didn't have what they actually wanted, long-term health-care benefits. The following year the law was repealed. The furious reaction to unwanted Medicare coverage, which included seniors climbing on the car of then-House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, is a preview of the eruption of public outrage that would greet the signing of ObamaCare into law... This is a situation where the longstanding rule of waiting for popular support and bipartisan backing should apply.