Republicans don't seem to be learning their own lesson from the November midterms. After accusing President Obama in a heated election year of ignoring the economy and unemployment while too focused on health care reform, they're falling into their own partisan trap by obsessing over the landmark legislation and its repeal. What happened to jobs, jobs, jobs? What happened to, 'vote for us, America, and we'll fix the economy and put you back to work!?'
Just a month into their new majority in the House, the GOP's uber-manic focus is exclusively on health care. Republicans rushed to vote for repeal earlier this week and Speaker John Boehner (OH) has directed his members to come up with alternatives that include strict new limitations on abortion coverage. While Boehner & Company promised America a laser-like focus on the still-sputtering economy and its 9.4% unemployment rate, all they're offering is the same tired, self-serving right-wing agenda. They simply can't help themselves.
To be sure, what the GOP is really obsessing over is Obama himself, and a rapacious hunger to undermine him and the Democratic agenda anywhere and everywhere possible. "We're going to do everything -- and I mean everything we can do -- to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can," Boehner said just before the election, which ushered in a Republican House majority and gave him its highest post.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) at the same time said, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
Do Boehner and McConnell think this is the kind of call-to-action that voters bought from them on November 2nd? Where are their economic proposals? Where are the jobs creation bills? What's the GOP's plan for sustainable GDP growth? The Republican leadership is filled with such partisan vitriol, and is so rabid in its desire to undermine Obama, that it's ignoring its own campaign rhetoric and failing to deliver on its #1 promise. As such, it's undermining itself in the process, as evidence by a slew of recent polls showing that voters are fast losing confidence in the GOP's ability to do anything other than obstruct Obama.