Posted on 11/25/2014 10:39:45 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Democrats made a strategic mistake by passing the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, said Tuesday.
Schumer says Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them in the 2008 elections, a Democratic landslide, by focusing on healthcare reform instead of legislation to boost the middle class.
After passing the stimulus, Democrats should have continued to propose middle class-oriented programs and built on the partial success of the stimulus, he said.
He said the plight of uninsured Americans caused by unfair insurance company practices needed not be addressed but it wasnt the change that people wanted when they elected Barack Obama as president.
Americans were crying out for an end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs; not for changes in their healthcare, he said.
He noted that 85 percent of all Americans got their healthcare from either the government, through Medicare or Medicaid, or through an employer.
So when Democrats focused on healthcare, the average middle class person thought, the Democrats are not paying enough attention to me, he said.
Schumer's concession is a striking change of tone from what he said shortly after the passage of the healthcare law, when he predicted that ObamaCare would turn out to be a strong political issue for his party.
I predict by November those who voted for healthcare will find it an asset, those who voted against it will find it a liability, he said on NBCs Meet the Press in March 2010.
A slew of Senate Democrats, including Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Kay Hagan (N.C.) and Mark Udall (Colo.), who voted for the bill, however, ended up losing in 2010 or 2014. Republicans attacked them constantly for voting for ObamaCare, an attack that became more potent after the laws error-prone rollout.
On Tuesday, Schumer said that behind the scenes he told other Democratic Party leaders, however, that they should not have focused on ObamaCare instead of jobs and the economy.
Schumer in a speech at the National Press Club urged Democrats to embrace their identity of seeing government as a solution for stagnating middle-class incomes. He warned that in defeat, the party must avoid recasting itself as a different version of the Republican Party......."
Upchuck neatly removes himself............
Sounds to me like Schumer is setting the stage and making the case for repeal. If so, then I applaud his honesty.
Is Schumer up for reelection ? LOL
New Yorkers will re-elect this POS by a landslide next time he has to run. It boggles the mind...
Schumer’s running for President....
Maybe Schumer can explain away this one too...
“Michael Brown’s Stepfather Urged Protesters To “Burn This Bitch Down” After Grand Jury Announcement
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/ferguson/burn-this-bitch-down-879056
If Schumer actually believes this, he doesn’t understand Obama. Obamacare was the absolute cornerstone of Obama’s socialist agenda and regulatory administration.
Yo, Schmuck, you got that one right.
I think Schumer’s running for President... and that’s going to require a lot of distance from the lawless black leader in office now...
Well, blow me over with a feather.
So he was for it before he was against it.
Sounds like a rat preparing to abandon Obama’s sinking ship.
Oh no you don’t!
Hey Chuck! You a$$hats insisted Obamacare WOULD help the economy. It would put MORE money into the middle class wallets by SAVING them so much. It WOULD bring down the cost of health insurance across the board, and that would creat jobs and grow the economy.
You don’t get a 20/20, armchair quarterback do over now. You communists pushed this through on Christmas Eve using a tax legislation trick called “reconciliation”. You had to change the name of a previously passed bill that was unrelated and already approved to call it reconcilliation. Democrats subverted the letter and intent of all legilative rules and our constitution to RAM this $hit down the the throats of Americans against the majority will.
No, Sir. Democrats need to just keep chewing the fat on this one. Good luck getting the stink off.
Its Schumer so it’s doubtful honesty is involved. Must be another explanation.
11/25/14: "Terry McAuliffe is unhappy with Democrats - Clinton confidant sounds off on his partys electoral bumbling"
PETERSBURG, Va. "Dont be fooled by the expansive grin, outstretched arms and the booming baritone with which Terry McAuliffe greets throngs of churchgoers here: The governor of Virginia is frustrated.
Not with his job in Richmond McAuliffe says he has loved every second of it. The only problem with being governor, he laments, is that sometimes he has to sleep. If powerful Republicans have stymied McAuliffes legislative agenda, he takes it in stride. On his overarching goal economic development the governor pronounces his administration as wildly successful as anything I could want to do.
Its McAuliffes own party that has him down.
He begins carefully I dont mean to be overly critical but then he gets rolling. In a 2014 campaign fought against a backdrop of dropping unemployment and record highs for the Dow, he says theres no excuse for Democrats to cede the argument on jobs to Republicans. They didnt talk about it! he exclaims. They didnt have a strategy.
Why come out and vote for the Democratic Party? There was no message to say: Heres what weve done. I wish the party or whoever had done a national media campaign and say, heres what you get when you elect Democrats, McAuliffe says. But there was no what was the message out of 14? Im asking you rhetorically do you know? No. What was it?
McAuliffe, a close friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton, calls it an urgent, hair-on-fire priority for Democrats to learn how to tie together an assertive, socially liberal message with close-to-home concerns about opportunity and economic competitiveness. In 2008, he was Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, but says he wont take a formal role with her 2016 campaign, if she runs, because of his commitments as governor. But he says he talks all the time with Bill Clinton and would be an enthusiastic friend of the family if and when Hillary Clinton launches her campaign.
The biggest issue in this upcoming election, its still going to be the economy. Its going to be this income inequality, the issue of the middle class dropping down, McAuliffe predicts, with a shot of nostalgia for the 1990s: I always like to say, Bill Clinton created more millionaires and billionaires than any president, but you know what, more people moved out of poverty. Middle-class income all-time high..............
Almost. He was against it after he was for it. There is a difference, ya know.
“It’s Schumer so its doubtful honesty is involved. Must be another explanation.”
Agreed!
It is an albatross around their necks. Secretly they are no doubt hoping that SCOTUS strikes is down and removes the dead weight.
Preparing for 2016
Too late a$$hat. You can possibly rehab your legacy as an a$$hat if you were to aid republicans to dismantle the Obala abomination.
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