More Obamacare theater

I had to laugh when I heard on the news last night that thirty-nine House Democrats voted with the Republicans to allow the public to keep their own insurance policies. It’s likely that, if in office at that time, they all voted for Obamacare in 2009. The new bill will allow the insurance companies to issue new policies that do not meet the Obamacare standards, and effectively guts the Obamacare legislation.

It is political theater. There is no chance that the Democratic Party controlled Senate will pass the bill, nor will President Obama sign it into law. If it gets to his desk, he will veto it.

If he does, then both chambers have to vote a 2/3rd majority to make the bill law. Good luck with that.

So why did at least twenty-seven of the the thirty-nine Democrats vote with the Republicans? The answer is simple, for at least those listed below. It is a tactical move to save their jobs in the 2014 election cycle.  They wanted to send a message to their districts, where the races are actually competitive, that they are “outraged” at the Obamacare mess by pretending to support the Republican position. It will be one of their 2014 election cycle talking points about how outraged they were, so please reelect them.

The other slight possibility is that the the Democrat leadership quietly encouraged these people to vote for the Republican plan. Why? To solidify their seats, as the worst thing for the Democrats is that they lose these House seats to Republican challengers in 2014. This will widen the Republican majority in the House, that’s obviously bad for the Democrats.

It’s sad but true, and as I’ve written before, politicians often vote against what they believe from a tactical perspective to save their jobs. That is what is the most important thing to them, not the country, not the public that they supposedly serve but their jobs.

Twenty eight of the thirty nine had under a 10% victory margin in the 2012 election cycle.