This from Senate Democrats' top strategist, whose budget-shirking, tough vote-blocking, rules-changing course of action -- carried out by Harry Reid -- still
Advertisement
"Democrats should have continued to propose middle class-oriented programs, and built on the partial success of the stimulus. But unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity that the American people gave them. We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem: Healthcare reform…it wasn't the change we were hired to make."
Several interesting bits in that clip -- from the qualified assessment of the wasteful, ineffectual stimulus program (which failed on its own terms), to the the frank admission of misplaced priorities, to the acknowledgement that the general public didn't want Obamacare (despite all of the overwrought promises and lies), to the almost jaw-droppingly candid political calculus about uninsured Americans as a voting bloc. Also implicit in Schumer's analysis is a concession that Obamacare is not, and never was,
Advertisement
In fact, since the infamous Christmas Eve 2009 Senate vote on the bill that would become Obamacare, 29 of the 60 Democratic Senators who lent decisive 'aye' votes will have left office by the time the new Congress convenes in January. If I'm reading Philip Klein's rundown properly, Mary Landrieu's likely loss would make it a clean 30. Fully half of Senate Democrats who passed Obamacare will be gone within five years of casting that vote. It's true that a fair number of these departures had nothing to do with the law. A few died, while others were from blue states and were replaced by fellow Democrats. But roughly half of those who have left or are on their way out were defeated by, or replaced by, Republicans. Democrats fought the 2010 and 2014 elections with Obamacare serving as a
Advertisement
Join the conversation as a VIP Member