Now it doesn't seem a particularly popular thing to say, or one that 'the people' are generally worked up about, but it's true, and it ought to be thoroughly demonstrated. Every Republican within range of a microphone ought to be making the point, even if it seems amorphous and hazy to think about.
Make no mistake, it's hard to get a rhetorical handle on the proposals and arguments Obama is making. Here's York:
Republican strategists have a problem. The scale of what President Barack Obama proposes to do to the American economy is so enormous, so far-reaching and so potentially disastrous that the opposition party is having a hard time describing it.
[...]
GOP message mavens are struggling with something that academics call “insensitivity to scope.” It affects us all; we can understand something on a small scale but have a difficult time comprehending the same thing on a massive scale.
But just because it's hard doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. In fact, even though it seems difficult and perhaps ineffective, it's at least policy-focused. And if its anything Republicans need to do it's get out of their own navels and start acting like a motivated opposition party. Bill Kristol made the point rather well, I thought:
...the Obama plan can be fairly charged with endangering both [quality of and access to healthcare] and may, therefore, be far more politically vulnerable than its backers think. Even if the Democrats can ram elements of Obama's health plan through Congress this summer under the budget reconciliation process, there will still be a debate, presumably in the fall and winter, on legislation needed to complete the plan.
I know it's asking a lot, but just make the arguments and keep making them.
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