In Swingtown, U.S.A., Republican Views Soften
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa.—Plenty of voters in Rep. Patrick Meehan's politically divided district take a dim view of President Barack Obama and the health-care law he championed. But Republicans here also say shutting the government was a step too far in the GOP's fight against the Affordable Care Act.
While the budget battle in Washington has been fought along partisan lines—with some GOP lawmakers linking a resolution to fund the government to some concessions on the health law—this swing district just west of Philadelphia represents a middle ground in the dispute. Voters from both parties heap blame on Democrats and Republicans alike and urge lawmakers to end the shutdown, raise the debt ceiling and only then resume brawling over health care and everything else.
Those opinions help explain why Mr. Meehan has emerged as one in a small group of House Republicans who have broken with hard-line GOP colleagues and called for a no-strings-attached funding bill to reopen the government. As Republican leaders move closer to a deal with the White House, the pressure from these GOP lawmakers and the frustrations of Mr. Meehan's district have been a factor in pushing the leadership toward compromise.
(snip)
Charlie Sexton , former chairman of the Springfield Township Republican Party, said that like many voters in the area he considers himself a conservative Republican but not a "radical conservative Republican." While he blames Mr. Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress for much of what has gone wrong in Washington, he says some Republican lawmakers lost sight of a key fact in this fight. "The problem is this: Obama won the election, and Obamacare is the law," he said.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304500404579129822906954630
(If you cannot open at the link, copy and paste the title onto google)
