Republicans shifting campaign focus beyond health care

"Republicans had promised to make the fall elections a reprise of the bitter, exhausting debate over what they call 'Obamacare,'" The Boston Globe reports. "But two months before the vote, the GOP has adopted a more nuanced approach and folded the issue into broader attacks on the Democrats' handling of the economy. When Republicans bring up health care, they tend to list it as just one example in a litany of complaints about the 'misplaced priorities' and 'overreaching' of Democrats. Even many Democrats are downplaying the new sweeping overhaul, once trumpeted as a signature accomplishment, because they are skittish about being portrayed as advocates of big government. ... The reason, analysts say, is clear: Jobs and the economy dominate the concerns of Americans, particularly those coveted independent voters who will tip individual midterm elections. ... The early conventional wisdom that health care would be the top issue did not account for the way persistent joblessness would erode the electorate's confidence in the economy and in the Obama administration, said Robert Blendon, a professor at Harvard University School of Public Health and a specialist on voter sentiment about medical care" (Arsenault, 9/11).

But The New York Times identifies at least one race where health care is playing an outsize role. "Here in northeastern Ohio, as around the country, the political impact of the health care vote has been eclipsed by voters' concerns about the economy and jobs. But [John] Boccieri, a freshman Democrat who supported the final bill after first voting against a more expensive House version, still finds himself defending the law at stop after stop. Because Mr. Boccieri, along with seven other Democrats, switched his vote to ensure the bill's passage, his task is more challenging than most. Not only does he face opposition from those who dislike the health care law on its merits, but he has stoked cynicism about his independence from President Obama and the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, both of whom are unpopular in this conservative-leaning district" (Sack, 9/10).

Politico notes that one key Republican member of Congress, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., says health care will be on the Republicans' agenda if they take control of Congress. Westmoreland, the vice chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told a gathering of the Faith and Freedom Conference in Washington Friday that his party is determined to get rid of the health law and other Democratic initiatives and is willing to shut down the government to do it. "Republicans mostly likely would waste no time taking advantage of a House majority: The first item on the agenda would be a repeal of the health care reform bill, he said. 'When we take the majority, we're going to assume that the American people have revolted, or whatever, against the Obama agenda, the progressive agenda, for Washington,' he said."

"Westmoreland said his caucus — presuming it takes control of the House come November — aims to pass spending bills that Obama is likely to veto. He predicted Republicans would not be able to override such a veto, creating a standoff that could cause Congress to grind to a halt. 'If the government shuts down, we want you with us,' he said. (Hohmann, 9/10).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.