Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer threw Obamacare under the bus Tuesday, charging that Democrats should not have passed the law in 2010.
Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, spoke Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington about the Democrats’ losses in this year’s elections. He encouraged Democrats to embrace government despite their electoral crash but also admitted that the Democratic House and Senate should not have passed Obamacare.
Democrats should have focused on directly helping the middle class, Schumer argued.
“Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them” by electing President Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2008. “We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem.”
“The plight of uninsured Americans and the hardships created by unfair insurance company practices certainly needed to be addressed,” Schumer said. “But it wasn’t the change we were hired to make” in the 2008 election. ”Americans were crying out for the end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs — not changes in health care.”
“The Affordable Care Act was aimed at the 36 million Americans who were not covered,” Schumer continued. “It’s been reported that only a third of the uninsured are even registered to vote,” making Obamacare unlikely to win the Democrats any votes at all.
“Even if the uninsured kept with the rate, which they likely didn’t, you would still only be talking about five percent of the electorate,” Schumer said. It made “no political sense” and left the middle class thinking the “Democrats are not paying enough attention to me.”
http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/25/chuck-schumer-we-shouldnt-have-passed-obamacare-in-2010-video/
Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, spoke Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington about the Democrats’ losses in this year’s elections. He encouraged Democrats to embrace government despite their electoral crash but also admitted that the Democratic House and Senate should not have passed Obamacare.
Democrats should have focused on directly helping the middle class, Schumer argued.
“Unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them” by electing President Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2008. “We took their mandate and put all our focus on the wrong problem.”
“The plight of uninsured Americans and the hardships created by unfair insurance company practices certainly needed to be addressed,” Schumer said. “But it wasn’t the change we were hired to make” in the 2008 election. ”Americans were crying out for the end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs — not changes in health care.”
“The Affordable Care Act was aimed at the 36 million Americans who were not covered,” Schumer continued. “It’s been reported that only a third of the uninsured are even registered to vote,” making Obamacare unlikely to win the Democrats any votes at all.
“Even if the uninsured kept with the rate, which they likely didn’t, you would still only be talking about five percent of the electorate,” Schumer said. It made “no political sense” and left the middle class thinking the “Democrats are not paying enough attention to me.”
http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/25/chuck-schumer-we-shouldnt-have-passed-obamacare-in-2010-video/
