#Obamacare: White House refuses bills to let you keep your insurance

**Posted by Phineas

Alternative headline: “White House to congressional Democrats: ‘You’ve served your purpose, now die! And thank you for your support.'”

Jim Geraghty notes the push-back coming from the Obama administration and its media allies to the idea of passing any bill that loosens, delays or eliminates the individual mandate. The White House knows that any such move would only hasten the Obamacare death-spiral, and WaPo’s Greg Sargent predicts Harry Reid will perform his usual blockade duty and prevent any such bill from coming anywhere near Obama’s desk.

Trouble is, it’s not Fred Upton’s bill in the House that Obama has to worry about, nor is it Senator Johnson’s (R-WI) similar legislation; what has them worried is Senator Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) own offering. They have to be frightened that other increasingly panicked Democrats will join her, creating a stampede effect that Republicans will happily join. (Remember, Obamacare needs to vampirize the young and healthy to pay for all those Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. Republicans have no interest in facilitating that.) If Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), from as safe a seat as there can be, is ready to sign on (1), can Mark Pryor and other endangered Democrats be far behind? Or what if a bloc of Democrats rebel and join Republicans to pass the Upton or Johnson bills, making it impossible for Obama to vote “present?”

These are the considerations that inspire Jim to savor the Democrats’ delicious dilemma:

This is fantastic. 

Salon’s Brian Beutler can see the pain that this is going to inflict on Democrats: ”The Keep Your Health Plan Act would be immensely damaging to Obamacare if it ever became law, and preventing it from becoming law will require Senate Democrats and President Obama to sustain real political damage over the next few weeks.”

Can you picture the ads? “Senator [Insert Democrat Here] voted …for the Obamacare law that took away your health insurance… and then voted against the Keep Your Health Plan Act.” The vulnerable Democrats in Congress will embrace Upton and other plans, while the administration and its allies will need to defeat those ideas with every tool necessary. Democrats are about to enjoy a round of infighting that makes the GOP infighting during the shutdown look like a mild disagreement. 

Popcorn is available in the lobby. 

Footnote:
(1) From what I read on Twitter last night, Feinie’s offices were flooded with 30,000 angry phone calls. A million Californians are losing their insurance coverage. Put those two together and even Di-Fi will get worried.

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)