From Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senator from New York:
After passing the stimulus, 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 the American people gave them. We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem – health care reform.
The plight of uninsured Americans and the hardships caused by unfair insurance company practices certainly needed to be addressed, but it wasn’t the change we were hired to make. Americans were crying out for an end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs; not for changes in their health care.
http://fusion.net/story/29934/chuck-schumer-plan-democrats-2016-election/
Senator Schumer also pointed out that only 5 percent of registered voters were uninsured in 2010. His remarks have infuriated Democrats, perhaps because the truth stings. Only the most blissfully oblivious of them do not realize that the lies used to sell Obamacare, the extraordinary and dubious maneuvering that were used to get it passed, the split along party lines, and the botched rollout have not been forgotten and motivated many to vote Republican earlier this month. Schumer sees the writing on the wall: with more of Obamacare to be rolled out in the next two years, in part because of Obama’s “amendments” to the law, it is an issue that is not going away, a gift that will keep on giving to the Republicans. Perhaps by acknowledging that perhaps it was not introduced at the most opportune time, politically savvy Schumer is trying to put some distance between himself and the unpopular program. He faces reelection in 2016, and while he has a presumably safe seat, one can never be too careful.
