The Most Divisive Legislation

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is the most divisive piece of major legislation in the last 100 years. As Michael Cembalest at JP Morgan points out in his “Eye on the Market,” Obamacare has the highest partisanship gap ever. In the House, 87% of Democrats voted Yea, while 0% Republicans voted Yea, creating a partisan gap of 87%. In the Senate 100% of Democrats voted Yea while 0% Republicans voted Yea creating a partisan gap of 100%. Throughout the last 100 years the parties have been able to agree on legislation, but this time around Democrats came up with such a bad idea they couldn’t even get one Republican to vote for it. That’s telling since major bipartisan support was even behind such ridiculous ideas as alcohol prohibition.