Any year now, Democrats may start to ask themselves if it might have been better had John Roberts not changed his mind. If they would be better off with Obamacare out of its and our misery, a bone of contention now safely buried, and not as a bone in their throats.
For one thing, they still have the issue upon them -- the historic triumph they don't dare mention but which Republicans happily do.
Second, were Obamacare no longer the law, we might be seeing an uptick in hiring right now. Instead, that will be deferred until after November (and then possibly only if Romney's elected), and unemployment is rising in 44 states. Unemployment rising in 44 states is not what you want when just ten or so states will decide the election and unemployment has been 8 percent or higher for 41 months.
Third, had Roberts done otherwise, they might still have the issue of Medicare, which at this point they do not. When Paul Ryan was chosen to run with Mitt Romney, liberals planned to rip him to pieces over plans to trim Medicare. Somehow, they forgot that their own health care plan did much the same thing, covering 30 million new clients by draining millions from providers of Medicare. Although these cuts will not directly lead Medicare clients to pay more or lose coverage, they will end with many doctors and hospitals refusing to treat them at all.
This move on Medicare, which began as a shield for Ryan to fend off attacks on his program, turned into a sword, as it started to drag Obamacare into the argument. As Josh Kraushaar noted in National Journal, "by having a conversation about Medicare, it allows them to bring up President Barack Obama's unpopular health care law as well." Bill Kristol thinks D-Day was Aug. 14, when it suddenly dawned on the people in Boston they could link their defense of Ryan's proposals to the public disgust with the president's plan. "Obamacare's unpopularity blunts Obama's attacks on Romney-Ryan Medicare plans," said a Miami Herald headline only days later. A Rasmussen Reports poll found that by a 54 percent to 42 percent split, seniors in Florida found Obamacare more frightening than the Ryan proposals. (The split among all ages was 48 percent to 41 percent.)
