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Re: CNN Poll: GOP would bear the brunt of shutdown blame [W:176]
The most interesting thing is what would have happened had the Tea Party gone alone with the deal Boehner and Reid struck in July (a clean CR at 983 Billion).
Fresh from a beating on Syria, the media would have spent the last two weeks covering the disastrous ACA rollout. Republicans could have held hearings highlighting the problem followed by a bill delaying the mandate for a year. Obama and the Democrats would have taken a huge hit fighting such a "reasonable" proposal.
The most interesting thing to me about the last two weeks is that it really all may be pointless, but not for the reasons everyone thinks.
Consider this: At the witching hour before Healthcare.gov went live the Republicans in Congress had narrowed their demands down to two: 1) Delay the individual Mandate for a year and 2) Eliminate the congressional subsidy that no other American could qualify for.
Democrats refused to budge on their end and the shutdown happened.
Then came October 1st and the exchanges opened. These exchanges are there to connect people with health insurers so that they can sign up for insurance and avoid the tax penalty they will begin incurring on January 1st.
.. except, very few people have actually successfully signed up for insurance. 51,000 by one leaked count, and the general consensus is that Healthcare.gov is a disaster.
This is important because with Healthcare.gov in such a sorry state of dysfunction the government would be hard pressed to prosecute anyone who didn't obtain health insurance by the March deadline -- and if they can't sort out the Healthcare.gov technical issues in the next month the prognosis keeps getting worse -- it could end up that the the Federal Government will need to POSTPONE THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE until they get their act in gear because it will be unenforceable given the state of the signup system.
So in the long run the Democrats will have refused to grant the House their request of postponing the mandate a year only to have to postpone the mandate a year.
The most interesting thing is what would have happened had the Tea Party gone alone with the deal Boehner and Reid struck in July (a clean CR at 983 Billion).
Fresh from a beating on Syria, the media would have spent the last two weeks covering the disastrous ACA rollout. Republicans could have held hearings highlighting the problem followed by a bill delaying the mandate for a year. Obama and the Democrats would have taken a huge hit fighting such a "reasonable" proposal.