Americans Are Paying Attention

Quick post on national politics. Conservatives are happy this week because they added two Governors and lost two congressional seats (including one the Republican party has held continuously since the 1900's). To me it's a win-win. I have no plans to move to Virginia (although it's a beautiful place) or New Jersey. Hell, I can't think of any place in Texas I'd live other than Austin. The win for my side is that it just got easier to pass a progressive national agenda with two more votes in the House.

On the topic of health care, the new Republican bill is not going to help them with independents or even their base. Some excerpts from the Washington Post

In 2019, after 10 years of the Republican plan, CBO estimates that ...17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance. The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.
...
According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit.

The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan.

When Republicans make claims of fiscal conservatism and then do things like this, their only hope for gaining power is if people just aren't paying attention. If, as they claim, America is really a 'center-right' country, and yet they are still losing elections, maybe they ought to look at their actions in relation to their rhetoric. Putting out bills that are more expensive than those of the 'tax and spend liberals' isn't going to cut it.

I think that people on the left and the right both have reached the point where they are unwilling to have politicians say one thing and do another. On the left, that resulted in low turnout in Virginia and New Jersey. On the right, it seems to be resulting in a willingness to lose rather than put a so-called "RINO" in office (NY-23). Overall, I think it's a good sign for the country that people are demanding more accountability from politicians.