Yes, I know what the Politico article said.  But this is what is actually happening. Via Hot Air Headlines:

That spending has already begun, and its level is unprecedented, experts say, both in sheer volume and balance. According to data from the Campaign Media and Analysis Group, most of the ad spending this year has been to support initiatives pushed by Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress.

“That has almost never been the case in any administration,” said Evan Tracey, CMAG’s chief operating officer.

Through mid-July, CMAG, which uses automated capture technologies to monitor the airwaves, identified $9.7 million supporting Obama’s recently unveiled health care plan, $4.7 million opposing it, and $19.7 million more in generalized spending by groups staking out positions either before Obama detailed his plan or not directly supporting or opposing it.

In other words, as the largely-imaginary deadline on passing a health care rationing bill looms, the Democratic party is planning to use the August recess to hammer at the opposition of… its own members.  Meanwhile, the Republican party is proving to be more than happy at reminding those members about why they’re in opposition in the first place; what makes it doubly entertaining is that, win or lose, tying ‘moderate’ or ‘conservative’ Democrats to health rationing will benefit the GOP in next year’s races.  As Jeff noted earlier, the American people are by and large not particularly upset with their personal level of care, and they are not going to enjoy having it taken over by the government. 

They are, in fact, not enjoying the situation now; the above Politico article fails to mention that public support of the Democratic plan went from 50/45 to 44/53 in the same time period where all that money was spent.  Which is why the Democrats are so busy trying to bribe, cajole, threaten, or just wear down their own Members of Congress.  Far too many (from the Democrats’ point of view) are squatting in seats whose constituents are rightfully suspicious of what their supposedly ‘moderate’ legislators are doing.  Blame the ‘stimulus,’ and blame cap-and-trade: if either one hadn’t been pushed, health care rationing probably would have been imposed by now.  But they both were pushed, and so the current ruling party has to figure out how to pass yet one more bloated government program that won’t actually work as advertised.

There is no need to waste sympathy on that party’s travails, by the way.  All of this was a perfectly voluntary series of actions on their part.  There is also no need to make life actually easier for the Democratic Congressmen who have to choose between infuriating their party leadership and infuriating their constituents, either.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.