The future Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has shown that he, and by extension, his party are already out of touch with the American people. His promise to amend or possibly repeal the new health care legislation is not what the American people want. In exit polls taken on election night, American voters did not indicate that they want the law rescinded. In fact there are as many Americans who support the law as there are against. Hardly a mandate to repeal it.
From the New York Times 11/4/10:
"In fact, the American people said no such thing. In polls of Tuesday’s voters, only 18 percent said health care was the nation’s top issue. While 48 percent of voters said they wanted to repeal the health care law, 47 percent said they wanted to keep it the way it is or expand it — hardly a roaring consensus.
The “loud message” to cut spending cited by Mr. Boehner was actually far more muted. The polls showed that 39 percent of voters say cutting the deficit should be the highest priority of Congress, but a statistically equal 37 percent prefer spending money to create jobs. Fully a third of those who want to spend money to create jobs were Republicans.
More voters (correctly) blamed President George W. Bush for the economic problems than President Obama, and even more (also correctly) blamed Wall Street."
The GOP needs to understand that their victory on Tuesday night can easily be overturned in two years if they ignore what Americans want. This country is evenly divided, and some of the most crucial political contests showed that Americans are not willing to succumb completely to the GOP's ideas of drowning America's future in a bathtub.
President Obama set out a number of ideas and solutions in his press conference yesterday.
"Mr. Obama offered some specific ideas. Extending unemployment insurance. Extending tax cuts for the middle class. Providing tax breaks for companies that are investing in American research and development.
He proposed finding common ground on energy policy, developing domestic natural gas resources and encouraging electric cars. He took Republicans up on their offer to start banning earmarks, while urging greater investment in infrastructure. And he acknowledged that he could have done more to change Washington’s messy and secretive ways, and to have been in closer touch with those suffering from the recession."
If the GOP continues to obstruct, deny, and say NO! and to embrace Mitch McConnell's idiotic statement that the most important goal of the GOP is to deny Mr. Obama a second term, then they too will receive a well-deserved "shellacking" in the next election.
America is a divided country, and as the NYTimes editorial points out, young people, and minorities--America's future--do NOT vote Republican. Their voters are overwhelmingly old, white, male, and southern.
