Posted on 04/17/2014 4:40:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
Can Obamacare be fixed? Vulnerable Democrats are pot committed to this idea. They say most Americans do not want to repeal Obamacare and therefore the only way to make it work is to reform it. They accuse Republicans of not having a viable alternative and wasting billions of dollars on failed efforts to defund it. As a consequence, some Democrats are urging the party to stand firm on this issue, and to stop running way from a law many of them voted for.
Republicans already were pushing their luck by vowing to "repeal and replace" the health care law without having a viable replacement in mind, said Thomas Mills, a Democratic consultant and blogger in North Carolina. Now, he said, Democrats have even more reasons to rise from their defensive crouch on this topic.
"Democrats need to start making the case for Obamacare," Mills said. "They all voted for it, they all own it, so they can't get away from it. So they'd better start defending it."
Even some professionals who have criticized the health care law say the political climate has changed.
"I think Democrats have the ability to steal the health care issue back from Republicans," health care industry consultant said Bob Laszewski said. "The Democratic Party can become the party of fixing Obamacare."
Perhaps. But is this a wise strategy? That is, campaigning on Obamacare if you’re a vulnerable Democrat? A Bloomberg poll released last month suggests it isn’t:
According to the poll, 73 percent of respondents who said they would repeal the health-care overhaul known as Obamacare say the law will be a "major" factor in their vote. And 73 percent said they will "definitely" vote in this year's midterm elections.
By contrast, 45 percent of respondents who support modifications and 33 percent of those who support the law as it currently stands said Obamacare will be a "major" factor in how they vote. Meanwhile, 61 percent and 54 percent of those groups' respondents, respectively, said they will "definitely" turn out to vote.
At the same time, large swaths of the progressive base aren’t feeling particularly energized to vote in this year’s midterm elections. Question: if Democrats continue to defend Obamacare -- rather than run from it -- won’t that merely incentivize Republicans to turn out in greater numbers on Election Day? It’s true that Democrats can’t hide from their voting records given the barrage of attack ads coming their way, but to invoke the Affordable Care Act on the campaign trail in a red state at all seems like political suicide. It will remind voters that millions of Americans were promised they could keep their health care plans, when in fact they couldn’t, by the same people running for re-election. Best to ignore the issue altogether, no?
The polls show pretty consistently four years after the law passed that Obamacare is not a political winner. But if Democrats want to run on it, be my guest.
Yeah ‘RATS! Stop running. Barry says that 8 million dummies have enrolled for your fiasco.
By all means, FORWARD.
(Isn’t that what they say?)
Next look for news about other countries seeking information from the US on how to build their own version of Obamacare. Then some articles about the coming congressional debate about how best to spend the coming "Obamacare surplus".
Only racists will note how much Obamacare sucks ass.
The GOP blew one election on this and they are about to blow another one.
I don’t want to run scared from it. I want to chase it down and kill it...: )
I do believe Obama and his myrmidons are trying to destroy this country.
They’re telling me that the 400% increase in my insurance premiums are a good thing. (4000/yr 2009 to 16,000/yr 2014) I feel like an idiot for going along.
Are you going to stay home and make sure others will too, so your wish comes true?
They are sure working on it.
Right. Delete everything between the 1st letter of the law and the last period at the end and replace it with...NOTHING! Then jump back and watch American free enterprise go to work. I'll bet the Dow would jump 500 points in the first hour.
let it steamroll right over you, democrats!
Stop running, and start lying. That’s the one thing democrats are good at.
“The Democratic Party can become the party of fixing Obamacare.””
Good strategy since they are the ones who broke it in the first place.
Do it!
Of course it's a wise strategy. Sure, almost every working American is paying much more for policies that are worse instead of saving $2500 a year, and almost every American knows many people who lost insurance that they liked and doctors they liked, and all decent people are offended at trampling the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment and the fundamental God-given rights of decent people, but we can't act based on those little details. The important thing is that whether or not the ObamaCare policies actually provide medical care, the reported numbers show that we are back where we started in terms of the number who are covered by an insurance policy or at least put a policy in their shopping cart whether or not they clicked "purchase" or ever intend to pay.
Every Democrat should run on ObamaCare. If we like our Democrat politicians, we can keep our Democrat politicians. Reminding us of their support for ObamaCare is the best way to make sure that happens.
They appear to be in full “Rise Up Comrade” mode from here on out.
Its all about hating on and eating the rich and inspiring the proletariat to revolution.
Communism that even Lenin would endorse.
Yes Dims please defend O’care. Defend those “high quality” insurance policies that doctors can’t accept. Hospitals can’t accept. Have a 5K deductible and and $800 per month payment. Forced down our throats by a miscreant democrat congress. Ill people with no insurance b/c they were cancelled due to O’care requirements. No proscription coverage. Nothing. And this just scratches the surface. Yes Dims, please defend the law you voted in. Without reading. While telling the people nothing but lies about what it would do to them.
Please don’t stop...
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