2015: the Good and Not-So-Good Ahead

A December IBD/TIPP poll reports that Americans are upbeat on 2015 as the year begins, despite remaining split on many issues. Three areas of broad agreement, however, are the economy, immigration and Obamacare:

With the job market noticeably picking up, 62% believe there will be "significant improvement" in employment vs. just 36% saying that's unlikely.

After the border surge that saw thousands of young immigrants from Latin American cross into the U.S., setting off an often-bitter political debate, fully 59% say a new immigration law is unlikely in 2015. ... Respondents are far likelier to believe Congress will succeed in stopping President Obama's executive action granting temporary legal status to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants in America.

Meanwhile, with its fumbled website launch, rising costs and a surge of new rules, ObamaCare remains uncertain, the poll suggests. Among those who responded, 50% say that "the repeal or cutback of large parts of ObamaCare" is likely by the new Republican-led Congress, while 47% disagree.

For conservatives, reasons to be optimistic include:

• Enjoying the lowest gas prices in memory, watching a president restrained by the Supreme Court, seeing a president's policies rebuked by the electorate, a flourishing reform conservative movement, and declining abortion rates (via Jennifer Rubin);
• Obamacare is facing a serious challenge before the Supreme Court on March 4 to determine constitutionality of federal Obamacare subsidies (via Cato Institute); and
• 5 federal agencies are in the new Congress's cross hairs: Internal Revenue Service, Health and Human Services (Obamacare actions, enrollment), Department of Homeland Security (Obama's executive action on immigration), Environment Protection Agency (Obama's coal/climate change action), and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Obama's actions on regulating financial products like credit cards) (via Fiscal Times).

And a few reasons to stay engaged in the Washington policy debate:

• The Obamacare employer mandate kicks in Jan 1, 2015, which will impact the employees of companies with 100 or more workers in painful ways (via Washington Times);
• Right now, 87% of new Obamacare insurance users receive some sort of federal subsidy to reduce the premiums of Obamacare policies, but that could change dramatically after the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of those subsidies (via Washington Examiner); and
• Obama's federal agencies are poised to unleash another 2,375 new rules and regulations on American businesses in 2015, unless Congress issues resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (via Competitive Enterprise Institute).