President Obama speaks from the East Room of the White House.
President Obama clearly came prepared to open up new offensive over Obamacare, just as the law is beginning to kick in. In his press conference Friday, the president unleashed a blistering
counterattack with a message sure to be amplified in next year's election.
Quotes and analysis below.
Now, I think the really interesting question is why it is that my friends in the other party have made the idea of preventing these people from getting health care their holy grail. Their number one priority, the one unifying principle in the Republican Party at the moment is making sure that 30 million people don't have health care. And presumably repealing all those benefits I just mentioned. Kids staying on their parents' plan, seniors getting discounts on their prescription drugs, a return to limits on lifetime limits, continuing to get blocked from health care insurance.
That's hard to understand as an agenda that is going to strengthen our middle class.
At least they used to say, 'well, we're going to replace it with something better. There's not even a pretense now that they're going to replace it with something better. The notion is simply that those 30 million people, or the other 150 million who are benefiting from other aspects of affordable care, would be better off without. That's their assertain, not backed by fact, not backed by any evidence, has just become an ideological fixation.
Amplifying his voice for effect and speaking forcefully (occasionally standing tiptoe), the president is signaling he's ready for a big public fight over his signature accomplishment, and rightfully so. The question about the future of Obamacare was litigated to his favor in the last election. It is only right and proper that he defend his title and his law, vigorously.
The president isn't on the ballot, but members of Congress are. Democrats should remember that there is no way they can avoid or run from Obamacare. It will, and forever will be, Democratic Party-made law. The best defense is good offense, and President Obama set the example for how to go on the offensive over Obamacare. Democratic campaigns nationally would be wise to follow.
However, such words could have been quietly passed around in Democratic circles. The president used the bully pulpit, draped in gold curtain, buttressed by banners of authority. He pointedly noted that:
Their number one priority, the one unifying principle in the Republican Party at the moment is making sure that 30 million people don't have health care.
This has the potential of nationalizing next year's election. A national election is exactly the sort of thing that Republicans routinely lose. But that national election wouldn't just be about Obamacare. It would be a full-scale referendum on the Republican Party. Which is exactly what Democrats everywhere should want.