ObamaCare and Echoes of 2010
November 20 | Posted by mrossol | ObamaCareHmm.
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ow we know why President Obama was in such a hurry to announce his Affordable Care Act nonfix insurance fix on Thursday. On Friday, 39 Democrats voted with 222 House Republicans to pass Michigan Congressman Fred Upton’s bill to revive the individual insurance market. Imagine how many more Democrats would have defected without Mr. Obama’s offer of political cover.
The 39 defectors decided not to take any chances, perhaps figuring the latest White House fig leaf might get blown away if the cancellations keep coming. They abandoned the White House despite the promise of a Presidential veto and pressure from Democratic House leaders to stay united and not give the GOP a political victory.
Perhaps the rank-and-file remember the promises that Mr. Obama, Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi made in 2010 that the health law would become popular once it passed. Democrats lost 63 seats in 2010, the largest House turnover since 1938. Or perhaps they recall the assurances before October 1 that Healthcare.gov was ready to rock, not roll over.
The notable Democratic defectors included Nick Rahall, a 19-termer from West Virginia who voted for ObamaCare in 2010 and needs all the political protection he can get in a state that is leaning right. Wisconsin’s Ron Kind also walked Nancy Pelosi’s ObamaCare plank in 2010 and barely survived with 50% of the vote that November, and he too joined the Republicans this time around.
And don’t forget Tim Bishop, the New Yorker from Long Island who also toed the ObamaCare line in 2010 and won with 50.15%. This time he is trying to buy some political insurance. He was joined by Dan Maffei from upstate Syracuse who narrowly lost his seat in 2010 after he voted for ObamaCare but then won it back in 2012 amid a Democratic landslide in New York. Mr. Obama won’t be on the ballot in 2014, but ObamaCare surely will.
Mr. Obama’s faux cancellation reprieve was nonetheless enough to persuade the likes of Delaware’s John Carney, David Price of North Carolina and John Tierney of Massachusetts. These liberals were among the 157 House Democrats who chose to double down on cancellations, so they must think their seats are safe.
Mr. Upton’s bill isn’t likely to make it through the Senate, where Harry Reid is still blocking all ObamaCare improvements on behalf of the White House. Senate Democrats running for re-election in 2014, led by Mary Landrieu (Louisiana) and Jeff Merkley (Oregon), are scrambling for cover of their own with a bill to require insurance companies to un-cancel their cancelled plans in perpetuity. This mandate on top of the other mandates merely compounds the ObamaCare damage, but the proposal is a sign of Democratic political panic.
The larger political reality is that Democrats own ObamaCare and its woes no matter how they vote, and Americans know it.
Review & Outlook: ObamaCare and Echoes of 2010 – WSJ.com.
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