We have been seeing leading Democrats going public recently with their views that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or “Obamacare” was a political blunder or a simply poorly drafted mistake. This included the third-highest ranked Democrat, Chuck Schumer, who said that it was a mistake to even try to pass the legislation in the first term when most Americans did not place health care as a priority for action. Now the highest ranked Democrat, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, is saying that the Obama Administration may have doomed Democrats in Congress with its poor management and blunders in the rollout of the program.
Reid told the New York Times: “We never recovered from the rollout because the election became one that was directed toward the president. We couldn’t overcome that.”
What is curious is that at the time many Democrats adopted largely a denial approach that borders on delusion. There were no widespread calls from Democrats for Sebelius to be fired, the subject of a past column. The rollout failure was one of the most costly in the history of his country and there were ample indicators of the coming failure. I still remain unsure why the Democrats were not more open about such views at the time. As they plunged in the polls, there continued to be a circling of the wagons around the Administration on what was a legitimate criticism of its management.
In the end, I am not sure whether it was the rollout alone that doomed the Democrats given other issues like immigration. With the defeat of Landrieu, there is not a single national-level Democrat in any office in the Deep South. The Democrats are now at their lowest level of representation since World War II in Congress. That seems more than just the rollout. Schumer blames the ACA itself, but there still appears division among the Democrats as to the cause.
Olly – “Randyjet, that table would be decorated with a bunch of empty chairs.”
Sounds great to me. I would love a “Do Nothing” party.
People seem to mix healthcare and insurance up. Until people understand the difference, the conversation will always fail.
Insuring pre-existing conditions is not insurance.
Randyjet, that table would be decorated with a bunch of empty chairs.
randyjet – ” Those who simply lie for political advantage should have NO place at any legislative table.”
You just emptied all of Washington and every state capital.
LOL. And yet you admit, “I cannot understand why the dems seem to want repubs to have the control”… Therefore, it’s all the fault of the GOP; yup, that must be it.
LOL. And yet you admit, “I cannot understand why the dems seem to want repubs to have the control”… Therefore, it’s all the fault of the GOP; yup, that must be it.
I did not say it is the fault of the GOP you took my words and then turned them to say something I did not say.
Ms Jet rolls out “scandals” that have been repeatedly not scandals but that is the republican mantra again,. Keep telling the untruths in the hopes it will turn out to be tru.
IRS only refused tax exemption to one group and it was a democratic group. They did target but ot included progressives and liberals unlike the Fox and right screed it was only the right wing/tea party who were scrutinized.
Benghazi 8 investigations and the last from the repubs, there is no there there. How much more taxpayer money do you want wasted in this until they can figure out how to make it the scandal they want it to be?
leejcaroll – “bringing the unemployment level down from 10+% tp under 6% ”
You lose credibility posting this.
Also, can you give an exact number of people who weren’t insured but now are through Obamacare?
While I did not like Obama care, and my rates have gone up and choice is limited, it is STILL a FAR better situation than I had before! We could NOT get ANY health coverage at all since my wife is a cancer survivor and my job has no health care insurance. I have tried every method to get health insurance before Obamacare, and I learned EVERY dirty trick and scam private insurance has to offer! I am even more pissed off that we did not get universal health care as ALL civilized nations have, EVEN MEXICO is better than the US! So if somebody asks me if I like Obamacare, my reply will be hell no, but it is better than anything I could get before.
We could have had national health insurance as Canada has, and there would STILL be outrage at it. The GOP told outright LIES about everything, and have no shame in doing it. As they say, you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are NOT entitled to your own FACTS. Those who simply lie for political advantage should have NO place at any legislative table.
The blame is, as far as I am concerned, because the dems have let the repubs shape the conversation with lies, distortions, and exaggerations and ignoring of the benefits this country has seen from the dems and Obama admininistration,. Boehner let the immigration bill, bipartisan, never come to the floor for a vote despite having it for 1 1/2 years. The economy has recovered. No jobs bills from Boehner but still creation of jobs every month bringing the unemployment level down from 10+% tp under 6% (and those who want to sat people have left the workforce, that does not moot the fact that there has been continuous job creation for over 58+ months straight.) The rollout was bad but people have benefitted from the ACA etc.
More then 150 confirmations have been held up, many of them judgeships leaving many without access to the courts, no surgeon general, which should have been in place during the Ebola situation, etc. This is rep obstructionism of doing the people’s work. Why didn’t the dems come out strongly about all of this?
But they let Boehner run for his seat unopposed so it was a foregone outcome Boehner would be speaker.
I cannot understand why the dems seem to want repubs to have the control (unless it is for them to continue to bollox up the works and obstruct opening the door for another dem president and return to dem control in 2016.)
Karen, I think there has been some type of attempt to require the time necessary for such a bill–just so we don’t have that “you’ll have to pass it to see what’s in it” BS.
Actually, I think Democrats just doing their usual duplicity caused them to lose this election. Problem is the Republicans duplicity will cause them to end up the same way next time. Anyone see a pattern here???
I think we need to require our Congress to read and understand legislation before they pass it.
@ Karen.
I also think we need to somehow put a stop to these sweeping mondo giganotosaurus omnibus do everything at once bills. A bill starts out to do X and soon is larded up with every conceivable pork project, appropriations and amendments that have nothing to do with the original X purpose. The bill becomes so huge that it is unreadable.
Perhaps if our, so called, legislators would stick to narrow and focused legislation we would not have these debacles.
This is simply more Democratic Party damage control nonsense. Gruber demonstrated yesterday a significant difference between the political class and those that “advise” them. Never, ever take responsibility when you can pay others to take the blame. And besides, the grubered electorate will accept the “rollout” defense because they already own the shi**y product.
I don’t think we’ve ever witnessed a more egregious example of the *arms crossed finger pointing at everyone else* salute. Not that I blame them this time.
To be fair as I can be about it, since I dislike the ACA on its merits, the “rollout” is exactly what should be expected when you slap a brand new huge tax heavy program together in 2000+ disjointed pages. Then don’t read it and pass it in to law by “deeming” in the Senate… a procedural stunt. Then create a whole new agency mission and bureau within an existing agency with no previous relevant experience (there is one that did have relevant experience, but it was ignored)….and hire a outside outfit with even less experience to design the database and web site.
I am not surprised in the least. I suspect it something waking up from a wild party night with a hangover and asking “I did what? OMG!”
I think we need to require our Congress to read and understand legislation before they pass it.
It’s absurd to think this intuitively obvious job requirement needs to be enforced, but there it is.
Professor Turley:
“I still remain unsure why the Democrats were not more open about such views at the time.” This assumes that those Democrats actually had negative views about Obamacare. Are their current criticisms because they finally read the law, or realized that premiums for the unsubsidized skyrocketed, doctor and facility choice plummeted, and the rollout was a debacle? Or is it purely political defense because they suffered an election defeat? Is their only problem the rollout was a textbook failure of our procurement system, where we overpay and they under deliver?
I’ve warned Obamacare supporters, singing the praises of this debacle, that this law rested firmly around the necks of the Dems, and they would earn a rebuke at the voting booth. Although other parties were unable to prevent the law, they were effective in distancing themselves from it.
The employer mandate hasn’t even hit yet.
Just wait . . .
DUH!
Not to get biblical here but Galatians 6:7 properly fits what the Democrats did to themselves, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” Simply stated and true.
It wasn’t that they passed the damn thing that was the problem, Obama is the problem. Geez, what whiners.
Of course, Harry Reid’s superb management of the Senate had absolutely nothing to do with the loss of the Dem majority. Nothing to see here, move along.
Maybe, just maybe, next time they will read a law to see what’s in it before they pass it.
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