Matt Yglesias thinks so:
There’s another good example to go along with the Affordable Care Act: the proposed immigration reform of 2007, when poll respondents regularly approved of almost every major element but the overall proposal was very unpopular.
But Ed Kilgore has a different conclusion:
I think it’s safe to say that progressive hostility to this deal (which is pervasive, and varies mainly only in temperature) is more about the process that led up to it than the specific details worked out at the final minute.
It’s possible–maybe even likely–that both are correct. The December tax deal left a lot of progressives upset because it didn’t end the so-called Bush tax cuts. But the public liked it, partly because it actually did include many popular items, but also because it appeared to be a case where the parties collaborated and the process worked. The question is how widespread is the outlook described by Kilgore. If both Republicans and Democrats, in particular Obama, declare victory, and it’s reported by the media as a win-win (as happened in December), then the public may like the bill. And because there’s little in it that immediately and overtly targets specific groups, and because the process of the trigger and the commission is opaque, the casual observer doesn’t have as much to hate about this as she would if it contained, say, overt cuts or unpopular changes to Social Security or Medicare.
This is all, of course, predicated on the bill clearing the House. We’ll see shortly if it will.
America was held hostage and, whether the process worked or did not work, we were taken over by fear. I do not just mean the most vulnerable people in America, I mean everyone who did not want to see America’s financial standing compromised further. Millions upon millions of Americans have already been slammed by the economy. People are harkening back to the Great Depression. I fear the unreasoning voice of conservatism will prevail. We will be slammed again, by cuts to the very programs that reflect our fundamental values.
thank you Dana. I needed some encouragement.
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