From Fox News:
Three Senate Democrats say they’d be supportive of House-passed legislation that repeals the requirement for businesses to comply with a burdensome reporting provision in the new health care law.
Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Maria Cantwell of Washington and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota wrote House Speaker John Boehner Thursday, telling him the Senate would move quickly if the House passed a bill to repeal the provision that requires nearly 40 million U.S. businesses to file tax forms for every vendor that sells them more than $600 in goods…
A small step, to be sure, but it is part of ObamaCare – and three Senate Democrats have now signaled their willingness to repeal. The key things to remember are that 23 Democrat seats are up for election 2012, and 12 of those Democrat seats are at strong risk of loss, even if Obama rebounds and gets re-elected. The GOP needs a net gain of merely 4 to command a majority, while a 12 seat gain would put the GOP at 59 seats – and if Obama implodes and loses in 2012, then the GOP gains could be as many as 14-16 in the Senate. This is the sort of reality to sober up a lot of Democrats, especially those up in 2012 (also, it doesn’t get better for Democrats before 2016…in 2014 there are, just as in 2012, a lot of Democrats up for re-election in GOP-leaning States…product of the Democrat’s big wins in 2008; for the next four years, the Senate is the GOP’s happy political hunting ground).
Given these numbers, a lot of Democrats will seek political cover by distancing themselves from Obama and the Senate Democratic leadership – and a vote to repeal ObamaCare would be a splendid way for such Democrats to do something popular with the people while at the same time making themselves stand out as independent-minded leaders (they aren’t, of course; they are frightened rabbits…but, in politics, appearances matter and some times far more than reality). The GOP can, with a bit of cleverness, turn this desire for Democrat political survival to the advantage of the United States – using it to undo the worst aspects of Obamunism (there is a risk that such an undoing of the Obama agenda will help Obama get re-elected in 2012, just as the undoing of Clinton helped him to a second term…it is a risk we’ll have to take; America’s future is at stake and while getting rid of Obama is important, getting rid of Obamunism is much more so).
We’re in for a couple of very interesting political months, I think…
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