ObamaCare is no longer radioactive
Even Republicans are starting to embrace the president's health care reforms
When Chris Wallace asked Mitt Romney on Fox News Sunday why he lost the presidential race, one of the reasons Romney highlighted was, "ObamaCare was very attractive, particularly for those without health insurance, and they came out in large numbers to vote, so that was part of a successful campaign."
He added: "Well, I think the ObamaCare attractiveness and feature was something we underestimated in a — particularly among lower incomes. And we just didn't do as — as good a job at connecting with that audience as we should have."
It's an extraordinary admission because Republicans spent years trying to scare voters into believing that the law would wreck the country. It was portrayed as a step towards socialism, or worse, as its "death panel" provisions would soon condemn your grandparents.
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Romney himself ran against ObamaCare even as the Obama strategist David Plouffe gave him credit for being the plan's godfather. That's a rather bizarre strategy for someone who now claims the reform was the equivalent of political gold.
What Romney meant, of course, was that ObamaCare was a political bribe. He implied that to donors in a conference call a week after the election, arguing that the president gave big policy "gifts" to loyal Democratic constituencies to secure their votes.
But there's little doubt the politics of ObamaCare have changed since the Supreme Court upheld the law's constitutionality. Conservative governors are now even signing on to provisions of the law they once derisively dismissed.
ObamaCare may not be the perfect solution to the country's health care problems. But it's no longer radioactive politics either.
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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political websites. He also runs Wonk Wire and the Political Dictionary. Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and COO of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. senator and governor. Goddard is also co-author of You Won — Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including The Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Christian Science Monitor. Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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