Liberal conceit pushes health care bill most don't want

Fred Barnes:

Democratic health care reform--Obamacare, that is--in either its House or Senate form is unpopular both in general and in most of its particulars. Not only that, it's become ever more unpopular as Obama has drawn more public attention to it. Yet the operating assumption of the president and congressional Democrats is that enacting Obamacare will increase their popularity and improve their prospects for reelection.

Does this make sense? Will passing a widely disliked piece of legislation endear voters to those who passed it? Not on your life.

And Obama and Democrats have also embraced the flip side of their dubious calculation. They believe the worst thing that can happen is failing to pass Obamacare or something close to it, or at least something. Just look what happened to Bill Clinton and Democrats when they failed to enact Hillarycare in some form or other. They lost the 1994 election in a Republican landslide.

In case anyone had forgotten, Clinton appeared at a lunch of Senate Democrats last week to remind them. "It's not important to be perfect here," Clinton said. "It's important to act, to move, to start the ball rolling. The worst thing to do is nothing."

Really? Polls now show the public prefers doing nothing to passing Obamacare.

The explanation for the seemingly illogical thinking of Obama and Democrats lies in the basic conceit of liberals: We know better. Sure, folks may like their current health care, but we'll give them a better, fairer, more reliable system that's good for them and the country. They'll grow to like it. And Obama and Democrats will get the credit and the boost in popularity that comes with it.

Maybe they're right--no, perish the thought. Health care reform is only the leading edge of the most unwanted, voter-unfriendly agenda a president has ever proposed and fought for. The stimulus, cap and trade, vast spending programs, re-regulation, record deficits, more power concentrated in Washington, Guantánamo--these aren't going to make Obama and Democrats more popular either.

But Obama and Democrats do have one very important thing going for them. They have large, impatient liberal majorities in both houses of Congress. So long as they can keep most Democrats on board, Democrats can pass anything, no matter how unpopular. And this is probably the only Congress (2009-10) in which they'll be able to do this.

Despite a 60-40 majority, they're in trouble on health care in the Senate. It was all but certain that Nancy Pelosi would be able to push Obamacare through the House, and she did--even while 39 Democrats bolted, some no doubt with her permission. Next to Obama and perhaps White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, she's the most powerful person in Washington. She's tough and, like Obama, highly ideological.

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I have been saying for months that the only thing worse for Democrats than not passing health care reform is passing it. They have constructed a "death star" bill that is so complex and with some much control freak liberalism contianed in it that is is easy to find much to not like. Obama and Pelosi liberalism has led to a resurgent GOP. In reality it has led to an anti Democrat mood among independents that will benefit the GOP if it plays on that sentiment with skill and intelligence.

I find great joy in voting against Democrats and I welcome others to that feeling.