Democrats are whining that Sen. McCain has started voicing opposition to their misguided legislation. Here’s one of their pathetic arguments:

Democrats say Mr. McCain is part of a broad Republican effort to kill the health-care bill, President Obama’s top agenda item, and deal a devastating political blow to the administration. Mr. McCain disagrees, contending that the legislation in its current form is simply bad policy, but he appears to be relishing the political combat.

That’s what’s called a feeble attempt to distract from the real issue. The American people have repeatedly, and LOUDLY, told Congress to kill this bill and start over. They don’t want the huge tax increases. They don’t want to get shoved off of their private insurance. They certainly don’t trust the federal government to run health care efficiently.

If Republicans defeat the bill, it’ll be because, like Sen. McCain says, it’s awful legislation. If it’s bad legislation that isn’t appealing to Democrats, the Democrats only have themselves to blame for that. Republicans had a slew of great ideas. Harry Reid and Speaker Pelosi didn’t care about those ideas and kept Republicans from participating in negotiations. President Obama didn’t help with that either, meeting just once with Republicans. Not once did President Obama negotiate with Republicans in good faith.

If the Democrats’ legislation fails, which is a distinct possibility, it’ll be because the Democrats (a) put together an awful piece of legislation and (b) took a my-ideological-way-or-the-highway approach to jamming the legislation through. Had the Democrats taken a more centrist approach, they likely would’ve attracted a number of Senate Republicans.

The fight didn’t get easier when Richard Foster from the CMMS issued a report on Medicare saying that health spending would increase:

Republicans assailed the analysis, however, focusing on the increased spending of $234 billion from 2010 to 2019 that Foster noted, as well as various conclusions in his analysis that access to Medicare services could be jeopardized as the system grows to accomodate more Americans. Foster also found that the bill would reduce the number of uninsured Americans from 57 million to 24 million, which Republicans said still represents a failure.

“We had representations that the purpose of this health care reform was to decrease, to move down the healthcare costs. Now we find that this bill significantly increases the national healthcare expenditures,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). “It appears the Reid bill clearly fails that test and gets an ‘F’ on the issue of vetting the healthcare costs down and on the issue of insuring everyone.”

Proposing to expand Medicare and Medicaid was a foolish, possibly desperate stratgy on Reid’s part. Doing that alienates two of the people he’ll need to win over: Olympia Snowe and Joe Lieberman. If Sen. Reid can’t get Snowe or Lieberman, this legislation dies in the Senate, which is what’s most important.

If this legislation dies, the fault will be Harry Reid’s, Nancy Pelosi’s and President Obama’s. It’ll be their fault because they insisted on pushing an ideological agenda rather than putting a common sense plan together.

The proof that the people blame Democrats for this is found in Scott Rasmussen’s latest polling for President Obama:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16. That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President.

It’s pretty dramatic when only 1 in 4 people strongly approve of a president’s handling of his job, especially in that president’s first year. President Obama’s approval ratings should tell Democrats that they shouldn’t worry about what President Obama says. For that matter, Senate Democrats should ignore Harry Reid’s marching orders, too, because he’s history after next November.

If the Democrats’ health care legislation fails, it’s the Democrats’ fault because they didn’t put a sensible bill together. It’s just that simple.

Technorati: Medicare, Health Care, Harry Reid, Speaker Pelosi, President Obama, Democrats, Joe Lieberman, Independent, Olympia Snowe, Republicans, Polling

Cross-posted at California Conservative