There is no need to rehearse the many problems that continue to plague Obamacare, that make it a gift to Republicans and a curse to vulnerable red-state Senate Democrats as the days to the midterm elections tick down. In fact, President Obama himself said as much yesterday when he made a rare appearance in front of the White House press corps and smugly announced that “this thing is working.”
In the video, from Politico, he says, beginning at around 2:55:
We’ve been having a political fight about this for five years. We need to move on to something else. That’s what the American people are interested in.
Oblivious to self-contradiction, he goes on to add:
I think the Democrats should forcefully defend and be proud of the fact that millions of people like the woman I just described … we’re helping.
On the one hand, his message is “Mission accomplished, debate settled, the time for talk is over.” On the other, he is saying, Democrats seeking re-election should talk about the health care law and “forcefully defend” it.
Several about his remarks questions arise. First, is it true that Americans are interested in moving on to other topics? Not according to a recent Pew poll showing that more than 52% of Democrats — and 64% of Republicans — consider the Affordable Care Act as “Very Important” to their vote. The survey further finds more continue to disapprove (50%) than approve (37%) of the health care law.
A second question is how many Americans are still swallowing Obama’s numbers on Obamacare, which are either incomplete or out-and-out fabrications. Yesterday, for example, he claimed that 8 million have signed up for health insurance through online exchanges (with no word on how many have actually paid in) and that 35% of them are under age 35 (with no word on how many are sick).
But these numbers are coming from the man who promised on three dozen separate occasions that “if you like your health plan/doctor, you can keep your health plan/doctor.” His credibility was the subject of a Fox News poll released Wednesday, which found that 61% believe Obama lies to the country on important matters some or most of the time.
Increasingly when Obama spikes the football, he is playing to a smaller and smaller house. The final question, to borrow another football analogy, is whether he will lose the review on his claimed Obamacare successes when voters pull the lever this November.
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