"Morning Plum: Conventional wisdom on Obamacare is changing. Really."
Morning Plum: Conventional wisdom on Obamacare is changing. Really.
By Greg Sargent at the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/05/28/morning-plum-conventional-wisdom-on-obamacare-is-changing-really/
"SNIP........................
Todays Wall Street Journal features two pieces that portray the politics of Obamacare in a more nuanced way than the cartoonish political narrative favored by Republicans and some neutral commentators has allowed. The first reports that multiple Dem candidates are now more confident in trumpeting the laws benefits and attacking Republicans over the real-world consequences of repeal.
The second piece reports that Republicans are slowly evolving in their approach to the politics of the law, opting for a more nuanced strategy that doesnt place repeal front and center anymore. As GOP pollster Bill McInturff puts it, Republicans will need to have a bill of particulars about what hasnt worked.
That is a polite way of saying that the GOP strategy to date vow to repeal Obamacare and mumble platitudes about replacing it with something or other that does all the things in it that people like is a bust.
At this point it is broadly accepted that repeal is unpopular, that this fact can co-exist with disapproval of the law, and that this puts some pressure on Republicans to offer their own health reform agenda and/or to pay lip service to the laws popular goals. However, it is not yet broadly acknowledged that multiple Republican candidates who are trying to deal with this problem have stumbled into a series of equivocations, evasions, and outright policy gibberish that amounts to a story all its own.
......................SNIP"