Politico: Congressional Democrats on the verge of abandoning president over ObamaCare

Politico: Congressional Democrats on the verge of abandoning president over ObamaCare

By Robert Laurie (Bio and Archives)  Tuesday, November 26, 2013 Comments at bottom of page | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

If you want to know what Democrats are thinking, and you don’t want to subject yourself to the horrors of MSNBC, the Politico is the place to do it. There you can find hopes, fears, and realities, all wrapped up in bite-sized left-leaning nuggets. So, when they start reporting that congressional Dems are feeling the heat due to Obamacare, you can bet that all the little rank-and-file liberals will stand up and take notice.
Today, they dropped a doozy.  According to their sources, Democrats are terrified of the ACA implosion, they’re well aware that things are currently going from bad to worse, and they have no confidence in the President’s ability or willingness to create a plan B. If they’re to be believed, Dems are scrambling to find a way off the sinking S.S. ObamaCare and the President has until next week to make sure everything is running smoothly.  After that, all bets are off.
From the Politico:

“Let’s just wait and see what happens. We’re gonna — we’re gonna take two weeks off. I’m gonna visit with my five children together for the first time, 16 grandchildren, 44 people for Thanksgiving dinner. Let’s talk about that for a while,” Reid said last week.
But in the meantime, Democratic lawmakers — particularly those on the House side — are preparing to try to put distance between themselves and the president because they’re not confident that the White House has a Plan B for getting the policy right or protecting them in the mid-term elections.
  “I don’t sense that at all. When you think about it, a week after the October shutdown Democrats were experiencing a euphoric high. We thought we had Republicans on the mat. We thought we were going to win back the House and then this rollout fails,” said one House Democrat from a traditionally safe seat based in a major city. “Now, we need to be concerned, all of us, me included, that we aren’t viewed as ineffective and kicked out of our seats.”
  Not only are Democrats watching helplessly as visions of taking over the House begin to dissolve, but they increasingly perceive the danger that the Senate could flip into GOP hands and that Obama’s final three years in office could be a total loss for their party’s agenda.
  That is, the Affordable Care Act has a lot of Democrats feeling uninsured or under-assured by Obama.

Notice that this Democrat source doesn’t seem to be concerned that they are ineffective.  They just don’t want to be “viewed” that way.  Clearly, their self-preservation instincts are kicking in and, at least so far, they don’t see any kind of lifeline coming from the administration.
Another of the Politico’s sources went on to say that the 39 Democrats who voted for the Republican’s “like it keep it” bill 10 days ago represented just a small slice of dissatisfied lefties. Apparently it was almost much worse, and if things don’t change, it will be so again.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough’s trip to Capitol Hill two weeks ago appeared to stave off a mass insurrection, but 39 Democrats still abandoned the president on the GOP bill. The vote was held the day after Obama announced his own competing administrative fix and a series of apologies to the American public — and fellow Democrats — which appeared to have the effect of lowering the count of defectors.
  But while the one-two punch of Obama and McDonough spared the White House a full-scale embarrassment on the floor of the House, it didn’t quell anxiety or imbue Democrats with new faith that Obama can solve the problems with the Affordable Care Act rollout — or deal with the political flak that would hit if the site continues to fall short after the self-imposed deadline.
  “There was an awful lot of eye-rolling when [McDonough] insisted that the website will be fixed in time for December 1, and he really didn’t offer a Plan B, but was adamant that it would be up and running,” said a House Democratic source who attended the meeting.
  “At this point, I don’t think there is anyone that would express any confidence in the administration’s ability to right the ship,” said the source, adding that members seem to be “bracing for another tidal wave when Dec. 1 comes and goes and we are still dealing with a dysfunctional website, or ‘broken computer’ as the old-timers have been calling it.”

No one knows who the Politico’s source is, but his name might as well be “common sense.” It’s painfully obvious to even the most casual observers that the administration is flailing - badly.  Virtually no one believes there is a snowball’s chance in hades that the website will be ready by December 1st. It’s unlikely that it will even make the downscaled definition of “ready” - offered by Jay Carney - that claims “80% functional” somehow equals “fixed.”
Add to that the fact that 40% of the site, including the payment processing system, simply doesn’t exist, and you’ve got a recipe for ongoing disaster. 
Even if the website was somehow magically working, things wouldn’t change. All of the above presupposes that Healthcare.gov is the problem with ObamaCare.  It’s not.  The concept behind the entire scheme was always unpopular. It was deeply flawed from its conception and wasting 3 years on a “broken computer” did nothing to change that.
Democrats always knew how much people hated the ACA (which is why the Senate had to pass it on Christmas Eve when no one was paying attention) but now, very slowly, they’re starting to realize that their voters are furious and they don’t have any kind of escape plan.
It’s going to be fun watching the rats jump overboard.