President Obama's signature on the Affordable Care Act.
Are Democrats ready to start fighting again? Maybe. After two years of running away from the signature achievement of President Obama and a Democratic Congress—the Affordable Care Act—they are
preparing to embrace Obamacare and run on the accomplishments it's already achieved.
Party strategists believe that embracing the polarizing law — especially its more popular elements — is smarter politics than fleeing from it in the House elections. The new tack is a marked shift from 2010, when Republicans pointed to Obamacare as Exhibit A of Big Government run amok on their way to seizing the House from Democrats. [...]
California Rep. Scott Peters, a freshman Democrat who narrowly won election last year, said he doesn’t agree with every part of the law. But he said he’s not afraid of addressing health care — far from it.
“I don’t have any problem talking about it,” Peters, who hails from a San Diego-area swing district, said in an interview. “I think it’s a big issue. I think it’s going to be talked about more than immigration or guns.”
One early sign of the shift: After House Republicans brought a health care repeal measure to the floor last month—the 37th time they’ve tried—Peters joined a cast of other Democratic incumbents from competitive districts to criticize the GOP for the maneuver.
Republicans have definitely opened themselves up to criticism by continuing to waste time and money in having repeal vote after repeal vote, while accomplishing nothing else. It's helping to drive public disapproval of Congress and of Republicans, so it would make sense for Democrats to keep hammering them over that.
But it also makes sense for Democrats to embrace Obamacare on what it's already accomplishing—millions of young people able to be covered on their parents' plans, free preventive care, reduced drug costs for seniors, reduced Medicare spending that's extended the life of the program—and what it's going to accomplish. By 2014, pre-existing conditions will be a thing of the past for everyone, and that's huge. Millions will newly qualify for Medicaid, in blue states, anyway, and millions more will be able to purchase health insurance at rates that they can afford. The effort to highlight all that has already begun. Before the Memorial Day recess, Democratic leadership in the House armed all their members with a 78-page booklet that outlines the law and its benefits, provides talking points, and has fact sheets they can reproduce and distribute to constituents.
Yes, implementation is likely to be glitchy, but those hiccups are likely to be dealt with better by a proactive Democratic party that recognizes them and pressures the government to fix them.