A recent topic of discussion is the prospect that the GOP could re-take the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections. With today’s unfortunate report that the economy is still shedding jobs, and with the defeat of the public option in the Senate Finance Committee’s version of the health care bill, many Republicans no doubt believe they are on the offensive to a such a degree that they can take back the House.

I am skeptical that this will happen. It is true that historically the American people favor divided government, and it is also true that historically midterm elections tend to work against the party of the incumbent president. Still, several analysts have broken down the numbers and shown that the GOP of now and the resurgent GOP of 1994 are miles apart in popularity. Republicans’ scorched-earth policy to governance will not endear them to the public any more than it already has, and on the flipside Democrats are going to pile up some legislative achievements. (Believe it or not!)

Monumental health care reform legislation will pass in some form. Even without the public option, the legislation would greatly expand access to quality health care. On top of health care, the president is intent on getting at least two more major overhauls completed by the end of 2010: financial sector reform and cap-and-trade climate regulation. These will all be difficult processes, and Senate Democrats will again have to make some concessions to ensure their passage. This is the reality of the legislative process, though, and these new laws will represent major accomplishments for the president.

As the economy slowly trickles back to life and Obama compiles a list of laws to his name, voters will gain trust in the Democratic party – and all the while the Republicans continue to offer policy proposals that the public just does not support.

Tags: Congress, Democrats, health care, House of Representatives, Midterm elections, Obama, Republicans, Senate

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.