Can Republicans Play Hardball?

I have watched the Republicans operate over the past several years, and I don't believe they know how to play hardball.  They just don't have the courage to stick to their principles.  When the Democrats control everything, they get everything they want.  When the Republicans are in power, they reach across the aisle and compromise.  The Democrats control the mainstream media, and most things the Republicans do gets spun into a MessAPolitico.  The Republicans are left cowering in the corner.

When Democrats get in trouble, they circle the wagons.  The media ignores the story.  It all goes away with no lasting ramifications.  The Republicans, by contrast, often very publicly denounce one another.  They can tell the Tea Party members that helped elect them to stand down.  At times, this has infuriated me.  I do understand that no law can be passed without Democrat support in the Senate.  I also understand that the President won't sign anything that gives conservatives everything they want.

With the Republicans compromising on the budget and giving up the sequester cuts, it appears that they don't realize the position they are in today.  Just a couple of weeks ago, one of my Senators wrote me a letter bragging that the continuing resolution passed to end the "government shutdown" had preserved the sequester cuts.  Those were the cuts that weren't really cuts.  Well, now those cuts have been given away by the Republicans.

Today, the opinion polls are solidly against Obama and the Democrats in Congress.  Everyone out here in the real world now sees that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is anything but affordable.  Already, almost 6 million people have lost their health insurance coverage.  This number dwarfs the number of folks that have gained insurance through the PPACA.  The people that have lost coverage will need to replace it with a new policy that is undoubtedly going to be much more expensive than the original.  Many others are finding out that their doctor is not covered by their new Obamacare coverage.  Still others are receiving letters from their doctor, because Obamacare has made their medical practice financially unsustainable.  The inadequacies of the website to sign up for Obamacare coverage have been covered extensively in the media, and it is highly unlikely these problems will be fixed anytime soon.

All of the Democrats in the House and about one third in the Senate are up for re-election next November.  The folks out in America know that the PPACA was passed without a single Republican vote.  I'll bet that the Democrats that passed this health care MessAPolitico are hoping we will forget about all of the problems by next November.  Of course, we are all reminded with each monthly insurance premium about how much we abhor Obamacare.  Those folks that lost their jobs or got their hours cut back or lost the insurance formerly offered by their employers won't forget.

Now is the time to ask for the Democrats to help repeal this MessAPolitico.  The people are demanding it.  The people are going to replace the politicians that don't help stop Obamacare.  A bunch of these Democrats are going to have to be recruited to override the veto of Barack Obama.  The dirty little secret is that the Republicans don't want to fix this MessAPolitico any time soon.  In fact, they want it around until after the election in 2014.  They need it for political reasons.  Instead of taking advantage of the current Democrat political situation, the Republicans would prefer to hold out for bigger gains in November.  Who cares if it is terrible for America?  Their political futures are much more important than their constituents' needs.