Should 30 million people lose healthcare for partisan points?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will force a vote in the Senate to repeal the new health care law by offering it as an amendment to the first bill the Senate takes up this year. A vote could come as early as Tuesday afternoon.

The Democrat-controlled Senate will take up a bipartisan authorization measure to fund the Federal Aviation Administration using an open process, which allows any member to offer amendments regardless of whether the proposal is related to the topic of the bill.

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So the Republicans plan to force a vote on Healthcare Reform in the Senate shortly. Fair enough. On a technical level I generally dislike the whole idea of attaching unrelated bills as amendments. As a practice, I think it hurts democracy. But in this case, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been clear about not allowing the bill a vote on his own two feet, so Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell doing this as an amendment is fair game. The problem I have is the whole idea. America doesn’t want it repealed, and everyone knows it.

The poll finds that 40 percent of those surveyed said they support the law, while 41 percent oppose it. Just after the November congressional elections, opposition stood at 47 percent and support was 38 percent.

As for repeal, only about one in four say they want to do away with the law completely. Among Republicans support for repeal has dropped sharply, from 61 percent after the elections to 49 percent now.

Also, 43 percent say they want the law changed so it does more to re-engineer the health care system. Fewer than one in five say it should be left as it is.

>> Source AP (emphasis mine)

See that? One in four. That’s the people the Republicans are talking about when they say “we the people”. One in four.

Find any poll that offers more than just for or against and what you discover is that almost no one wants it outright repealed. I, for example, don’t like the bill. I never did. It was better than nothing. I’m all in favor of fixing it and repealing/replacing certain parts. But to just go back to the way it was before? No one wants that.

Here’s another poll. A grand total of 20% are in favor of repealing the whole thing. That’s even less, one in five. 18% Say they want parts repealed. You can add me to that. I also want new parts added.

So why are they so gung-ho to do this? Because those 20-25% are Tea Partiers. They go to rallys and wave Palin signs. They vote in Republican primaries. They knock on doors and make phone calls. They donate to people with the (R) next to their name. That’s the base. The Republicans are willing to take health care away from about 30 million people so they can get partisan points with their base. That’s politics for you. Screw over 75-80% of America to loud minority give you money and votes.