I listened carefully to Schumer’s remarks. He really wasn’t saying Obamacare was a bad law, just that it was something they should have put in place AFTER they had done all the other pro-government measures that their constituency wanted.
It’s similar to what many on the right have said on many core lefty issues - the had control of the White House, Senate, AND the House for two years ... so why didn’t they do that then? So Schumer here is basically agreeing with that and realizing that their party missed their chance by not acting on more important lefty issues early on ... and then incrementally building support for, or enacting in a piecemeal fashion, something like Obamacare.
But he still supports the law, and there is NO way that he would vote to repeal it.
“But he still supports the law, and there is NO way that he would vote to repeal it.”
I agree Schumer would not vote to repeal it. He is in a safe seat and is a party leader with ambition. His remarks are carefully calculated to serve other purposes.
I suspect Boehner and McConnell will put up a sham Obamacare repeal vote early in 2015. Despite the huge majority of the American people wanting repeal, the GOP leaders won’t be arm twisting across the aisle in order to create a veto proof coalition to end the law. Instead they’ll pass a GOP only vote, which the media will label completely partisan, and send it to the president who will promptly veto it. Boehner will shed a tear, McConnell will pronounce “we tried” and the GOP will get back to the same type of budget busting legislation and K street influence peddling GOP majorities led by Hastert and Frist perfected during the George W. Bush administration.
If the GOP truly wanted to kill O’care Boehner and McConnell would privately tell every Senate Democrat up for reelection in 2016, as well as any House Democrat who isn’t in an urban poor gerrymandered district, a vote for O’Care in 2015 will be pounded on the airwaves in 2016. In addition, a GOP intent on achieving repeal would be run ads prior to the 2015 repeal votes in most Democrat districts. These ads would show testimonials from average Americans struggling to pay premiums that have doubled and can’t keep their doctor.
Hardball politics can secure the repeal of O’care if the GOP will use the same Alinsky tactics the Democrats have used effectively against them. A bipartisan repeal vote and defeat of a presidential veto would completely destroy the credibility of Obama and lead to more legislative victories as well as tremendous goodwill from the American people. It would set the stage for reigning in regulation, forcing enhance border security, and a fiscally sound budget. Unfortunately Boehner and McConnell are not visionaries, strategists, patriots, or credible leaders. They are party hacks and tools of narrow corporate interests not aligned with average Americans or concerned about the future of the nation.