It turns out defunding the health care law is almost as unpopular as repealing it.
And yet, Republicans haven’t really slowed their assault on the law down at all. Jon Chait and Greg Sargent among others have scratched their heads about this in recent weeks. Chait in particular raised the fun possibility that the GOP had really bought into a false reality.
I see it a little bit differently. Nobody’s better at claiming a mandate than Republicans, and that’s what they’re doing here. They’re trying to move the ball on this debate and turn the law’s unpopularity into more than that — a public demand for destroying the law.
Maybe it’ll work and maybe it won’t. But I really doubt that the GOP will keep charging this hard these poll numbers worsen. Of course, they can’t fully abandon the repeal push — their base won’t allow it. But they could easily move it to the back burner, and if they can’t get any traction, I suspect they will.
