If you like GOP leadership’s health care plan, so too does the Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America.
The two conservative groups, known better of late for their troublemaker opposition to the Republican leadership’s strategies, are back on board as leadership looks to strike at smaller chunks of Obamacare and highlight Democratic divisions.
What’s changed?
“The shutdown alienated independent voters. You don’t need to look any further than Virginia to see that dynamic play out,” said Brian Walsh, a GOP strategist and former National Republican Senatorial Committee communications director.
“It’s unfortunate that these groups wasted months of messaging and hundreds of thousands of dollars on that failed strategy,” Walsh said. “To their credit, they’re finally seeing the light of political reality. … The way you affect public policy is by winning elections, not by attacking people on your own side.”
Indeed, Heritage Action seemed to acknowledge Tuesday that an election may have to take place before Republicans could actually repeal Obamacare, noting that the lesson of the shutdown was that “red-state Democrats didn’t break.”
Here is a previous Think Tank Watch post on Heritage Action and Obamacare.
Heritage Action for America is the lobbying arm of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
