For two decades, Republicans have opposed health care reform not because they thought it would fail the American people, but because they feared it would succeed. Passage of Bill Clinton's health care program, Bill Kristol warned in 1993, wouldn't just "do everything to help Democratic electoral prospects," but would "revive the reputation" of the Democrats "as the generous protector of middle-class interests." Sixteen years later in November 2009, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch confessed his worry that if the Affordable Care Act became law, "you're going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody's going to say, 'All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party.'"
That overriding fear—that a grateful American public would reward the Democratic Party with an enduring majority for adding the third and final pillar of health care to the social safety net alongside Social Security and Medicare—has fueled the fire of conservatives' scorched-earth opposition to Obamacare. But with enrollment in the new health insurance exchanges set to start on Oct. 1, Republicans are running out of time and tactics to defund, delay or destroy the Affordable Care Act. And in what is the supreme irony of the GOP's unprecedented campaign to sabotage the ACA, the real damage has already been done in the reddest of red states.
Study after study has long shown that health care is worst in precisely those states where Republicans poll best. But in their zeal to discredit a president they loathe, GOP leaders across the nation passed up an historic opportunity to bring health insurance and with it, greater financial security and higher standards of living to millions of their own constituents. When they didn't outright deny coverage to red state residents, Republicans did their damnedest to prevent their voters from even learning about their options under the ACA. And what "information" about Obamacare the GOP's best and brightest did regurgitate simply wasn't true.
Here's how they did it:
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the link is in the op
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