No wonder so many Republicans are lying about their Affordable Care Act vote history—including even Ted Cruz. Just look at the results of the latest Fox News poll showing Obamacare favorability at an all-time high: 54 percent favorable to 43 percent unfavorable.
On top of that, this month's Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll was released Thursday, showing that voters still volunteer health care as their top issue in this election, by a large margin. In fact, "health care is voters' top issue with seven in 10 (71 percent) saying health care is 'very important' in deciding who they will vote for." The ACA remains above water in favorability in this survey, too at 49 percent favorable to 42 percent unfavorable. That's now baked in. People have experienced health care under the ACA and they like it. They don't want to see it taken away.
All of which makes Mitch McConnell's latest pronouncements very strange. He's promising another Obamacare repeal push if Republicans win the Senate in November and on top of that he's backing the Trump administration's bizarre decision to argue against the law in court. And not just argue against the law, but to declare its most popular and important provision—protections for people with pre-existing conditions—unconstitutional.
Despite the very clear evidence that his Senate can't do a damned thing when it comes to legislating on health care, McConnell is still arguing for total repeal and starting over from scratch. "It's no secret that we preferred to start over" he said in a Bloomberg interview. "So no, I don't fault the administration for trying to give us an opportunity to do this differently and to go in a different direction." He's not just excusing Trump, he's endorsing the law suit. "Nothing wrong with going to court. Americans do it all the time; we can do it too," he said. "We"?
No wonder Republicans are floundering here. They can read the polls showing that 90 percent of voters say it's important that the ACA's pre-existing condition protections remain law, including 75 percent who say it's "very important."
And no wonder Democrats across the country are running so strong in 2018.
Volunteer to Get Out the Vote: Just click here, enter your zip code, choose the event that works best for you, and RSVP to attend.
It's not too late for your contribution to make a difference. Please give $1 to our Senate and House candidates and make Republicans pay for being, well, Republicans.