Law of the Land

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Surely this optimism isn't misplaced:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the healthcare bill will pass by next weekend.

"We'll have the votes when the House votes, I think, within the next week," Gibbs said on "Fox News Sunday."

Gibbs added that those on next week's Sunday talk shows "will be talking about healthcare not as a presidential proposal but I think as the law of the land."

Surely Gibbs knows what he's talking about. It would, after all, be a great embarrassment to the White House were the votes, in the end, not to be there.

President Barack Obama will look to campaign on the new healthcare law in midterm elections, Gibbs said.

"We believe healthcare reform is going to pass, and once it passes we're happy to have the 2010 elections be about the achievement of healthcare reform," Gibbs said.

But Republicans on Fox said there's no guarantee the bill passes and that Democrats will benefit from it.

"If they pass this thing, I think they lose the House of Representatives this fall," said former Bush White House adviser Karl Rove.

If Democrats do pass it, "then the American people will be the losers," said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

Well, of course they're saying that. They know that the polls are narrowing (with support for reform gaining), and that much of the opposition to Obama's plan comes from the left, which wants reform to go further, and that, once people understand the specifics, reform is extremely popular. Indeed, once this reform bill -- with patches -- has been passed, it will likely be a major vote-winner for Democrats.

Republicans claim that reform will ultimately be the Democrats' undoing, but then why are they advising them not to pass it? If they're looking out for their own interests -- and, of course, they are -- shouldn't their advice rather be for Democrats to pass it and then face the wrath of the voters at the polls? (For more on the utterly insincere advice for Democrats, see Jon Chait, who has been making these points for some time.)

But they know that that wrath may not be coming, that, instead, passage could rally the Democratic base, pull in independents, and otherwise put Republicans on the wrong side of history. This is why they don't want the bill to pass, and why their real "advice" is for reform to fail.

All the more reason for Democrats to get it done -- and not to take Republicans at their word, which is, as usual, blatantly dishonest.