The Senate Finance Committee health reform vote seems to have convinced some conservatives it's time to accept the idea that some type of reform bill will pass but that it will be a spectacular FAIL:
Megan McArdle: I think it is more likely is that [healthcare] passes, and fails spectacularly. There are too many moving parts, and if any of them breaks, the whole thing rapidly starts to spin out of control and eat a gigantic hole in the deficit. If it does break, I think that Democrats keep control of Congress just long enough to explain why they keep having to enact whopping new tax increases every few years. Republicans don't need to improve their message. They just have to wait for Democrats to recover their reputation as tax and spend politicians who woefully underpredict the cost of everything they propose.
So McArdle argues that health reform, if it passed, would likely fail on the basis of its....increasing the deficit? Am I understanding that right? Even if higher than anticipated deficits were to result after the reform, from the reform or other causes, and even if a majority of the American public were to notice and care about that, what exactly would the Republican Party propose to do about it? More tax cuts--in 2013 at the soonest? End the reform--in 2013 at the soonest--and throw more people back onto the uninsured rolls?
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