I recall a similar set of circumstances way back at the beginning of the year, FH.
After Scott Brown was swept into office taking Ted Kennedy's seat (with a campaign theme of being the 41st vote against Obamacare), Obama, Reid, & Pelosi proclaimed something to the effect, "we get the message, Americans are interested in jobs & the economy......health care reform will have to wait".
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Honestly. Why? Because health care reform has long been something of a Holy Grail to donks. Here the donks held the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Would they really bend to the will of the people, focus on the economy, and forego what would likely be their only opportunity for years to come to take control over a significant portion of the US economy?
Well, as you recall, within a week or two, the Obamacare push was on again without so much as an apology or explanation of the earlier lie of "getting it".
My logic from the start was that even if they had to fall on their own swords to get it done, the donks would do it. Why? Because once enacted (in any form) the program would likely never go away, would only grow, and would become a means by which donks could buy/leverage more votes to keep themselves in power for generations to come.
A good example is England. Even though a 'conservative' government is elected now and then, all they really ever do while in office is play around the edges of what we in the US consider a socialist-leaning structure. Nothing of significance ever changes.
Depatment of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Housing and Urban Development.....yada yada yada. Ya think they'll ever go away? Ya think it'll ever be deemed that their usefulness has run its course and they'll be abolished?
The US, I'm afraid, is headed in the direction of European-style policies unless Americans put a stop to it.