blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Democrats are fretting that Obamacare is going to crush their hopes of big gains in the midterm elections, just like it cost them the House in 2010.
And as bad-news headlines and big-time dips in the polls pile up, the signs of anxiety are starting to show.
On Monday night, South Carolina’s Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a favorite of the Democratic left, couldn't get away from the law fast enough, calling Obamacare “extremely problematic” — a quote that got wide play from GOP groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Sen. Max Baucus warned that there could be a “train wreck” if the Obamacare outreach doesn’t improve — and he helped give birth to the law in the Senate
And during at least two meetings with administration officials last week, Democrats told the White House they don’t like how the law’s implementation and messaging are going.
It's no wonder why: On Tuesday, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed just 35 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the law, right as the administration is planning to roll it out.
All the panic forced President Barack Obama to rush to the law's defense, saying at a news conference Tuesday: “Even if we do everything perfectly, there'll still be, you know, glitches and bumps. … And that's pretty much true of every government program that's ever been set up.”
Obama’s goal was to dismiss what he called “all the hue and cry and, you know, sky-is-falling predictions about this stuff.”
Don't bet on that happening. Democrats have been fretting about the law since it passed, and they're not exactly falling in love with it now either.
The NRSC latched onto Colbert Busch’s comments from Monday night, sending out a press release boasting that she joins a “chorus of Democrats who are running for office and running from Obamacare.”
Colbert Busch, considered one of the most prominent Democratic candidates in the country, distanced herself considerably from Obamacare Monday night in a debate with former Gov. Mark Sanford.
She has to appeal to voters in a conservative district, just like other Democrats running in states or congressional districts next year will have to win over conservatives and independents, too.
But the Democrats were always going to face this moment — they designed the law so all of the core pieces would go into effect in 2014, in a midterm election year. And they also needed a lot of complicated pieces to work together smoothly: health coverage for everyone who asks for it, new marketplaces of health insurance in every state, expanded Medicaid coverage for low-income people, and — of course — the hated individual mandate
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One Democratic strategist predicted that incumbents who voted for the law will raise questions about the specifics of implementation as a way to establish independence from the Obama administration. The strategist noted that the law has been unpopular since it passed, which makes it different than the war in Iraq, for which public opinion shifted from neutral in 2004 to negative in 2006.
more
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obamacare-democrats-2014-90780_Page4.html
And as bad-news headlines and big-time dips in the polls pile up, the signs of anxiety are starting to show.
On Monday night, South Carolina’s Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a favorite of the Democratic left, couldn't get away from the law fast enough, calling Obamacare “extremely problematic” — a quote that got wide play from GOP groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Sen. Max Baucus warned that there could be a “train wreck” if the Obamacare outreach doesn’t improve — and he helped give birth to the law in the Senate
And during at least two meetings with administration officials last week, Democrats told the White House they don’t like how the law’s implementation and messaging are going.
It's no wonder why: On Tuesday, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll showed just 35 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the law, right as the administration is planning to roll it out.
All the panic forced President Barack Obama to rush to the law's defense, saying at a news conference Tuesday: “Even if we do everything perfectly, there'll still be, you know, glitches and bumps. … And that's pretty much true of every government program that's ever been set up.”
Obama’s goal was to dismiss what he called “all the hue and cry and, you know, sky-is-falling predictions about this stuff.”
Don't bet on that happening. Democrats have been fretting about the law since it passed, and they're not exactly falling in love with it now either.
The NRSC latched onto Colbert Busch’s comments from Monday night, sending out a press release boasting that she joins a “chorus of Democrats who are running for office and running from Obamacare.”
Colbert Busch, considered one of the most prominent Democratic candidates in the country, distanced herself considerably from Obamacare Monday night in a debate with former Gov. Mark Sanford.
She has to appeal to voters in a conservative district, just like other Democrats running in states or congressional districts next year will have to win over conservatives and independents, too.
But the Democrats were always going to face this moment — they designed the law so all of the core pieces would go into effect in 2014, in a midterm election year. And they also needed a lot of complicated pieces to work together smoothly: health coverage for everyone who asks for it, new marketplaces of health insurance in every state, expanded Medicaid coverage for low-income people, and — of course — the hated individual mandate
---
One Democratic strategist predicted that incumbents who voted for the law will raise questions about the specifics of implementation as a way to establish independence from the Obama administration. The strategist noted that the law has been unpopular since it passed, which makes it different than the war in Iraq, for which public opinion shifted from neutral in 2004 to negative in 2006.
more
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obamacare-democrats-2014-90780_Page4.html
