Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, has forced a debate over fundamental party priorities out into the open. Should Democrats focus primarily on the problems of the poor or should they first address the economic struggles of the working and middle classes? It’s not often that a politician provokes conflict within the ranks of his party’s core supporters. Schumer did just that in a National Press Club speech on Nov. 25, three weeks after devastating Democratic losses in Senate, House, gubernatorial and state legislative elections. According to Schumer, President Obama and his party suffered defeat last month in large part because of the strategic decision to press for enactment of the Affordable Care Act soon after Obama won the presidency. In 2009, with Democrats in full control of Congress and the White House, Schumer said, Thomas B. Edsall Race, politics, inequality, campaign finance and demographics. Who Will Save the Democratic Party From Itself? NOV 25 Republicans Sure Love to Hate Unions NOV 18 The Demise of the White Democratic Voter NOV 11 ‘Making the President Small’ NOV 5 Election 2014: What Do the Midterms Tell Us About 2016? NOV 4 See More » 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. This makes sense considering that 85 percent of all Americans got their health care from either the government – Medicare or Medicaid – or their employer. And if health care costs were going up, it didn’t really affect them. Schumer analyzed Obamacare in terms of pure political calculation: Only a third of the uninsured are even registered to vote. In 2010 only about 40 percent of those registered voted. So even if the uninsured kept with the rate, which they likely did not, we would still only be talking about only 5 percent of the electorate. To aim a huge change in mandate at such a small percentage of the electorate made no political sense. So when Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, the Democrats are not paying enough attention to “me.” There were also adverse political and policy consequences to the emphasis on enactment of Obamacare: Had we started more broadly, the middle class would have been more receptive to the idea that President Obama wanted to help them. The initial faith they placed in him would have been rewarded. They would have held a more pro-government view and would have given him the permission structure to build a more pro-government coalition. Then Democrats would have been in a better position to tackle our nation’s health care crisis. Schumer’s remarks set off an explosion.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 11:53:21 +0000
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