Democratic Pollster: Slamming Obamacare in 2014 Is a “Trap” for GOP
Democratic Pollster: Slamming Obamacare in 2014 Is a “Trap” for GOP
Democratic pollster says GOP's Obamacare message is a mistake
By Alex Altman @aaltman82
Dec. 12, 2013
The botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act has dented public support for President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, but Republicans still need to be careful about how they play the next 11 months. If the GOP makes the law the cornerstone of next year’s midterm elections, the strategy will backfire in competitive districts, predicts a top Democratic pollster. ”This is a trap,” Stan Greenberg told reporters during a conference call held Thursday. “Grabbing hold of Obamacare will hurt them in this election.”
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But Greenberg believes the GOP, which intends to highlight the law’s shortcomings in campaigns across the country next year, has seized on a short-term political advantage to its long-term detriment. ”This is not a wedge issue,” he said. “It’s reinforcing the idea that they’re only interested in partisan battle.”
That’s because the poll found residents of battleground districts would still prefer to keep the health-care law and focus on fixing its flaws than to repeal it altogether. The poll found that 49% of respondents want to implement and tweak the ACA, compared to 44% who favor repeal. The five-point margin is closer than the 51% to 44% spread in October, a reflection of voters’ frustration with the botched debut of healthcare.gov and disquiet over the prospect of soaring insurance costs. But some of the opposition to the Affordable Care Act comes from liberals who believes the law doesn’t go far enough, Greenberg notes. Even in Republican-held competitive districts, voters narrowly prefer to implement the law than to scrap it and start over.
“This issue is evenly divided,” Greenberg claimed. “The idea that healthcare is their route to winning here, I think, will come out against them.” He argues that voters will interpret their focus on healthcare as a sign of knee-jerk obstruction at a moment when the country is weary of partisan gridlock. Running in the midterms against a law with no viable prospect of repeal, Greenberg claims, would tie the GOP to the tarnished Tea Party brand and risk a backlash for ignoring signal issues like the economy—as Democrats did in 2010 by threading a big, polarizing bill through a divided government at a moment when the economy had cratered and voters wanted lawmakers to focus on jobs.
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http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/12/democratic-pollster-slamming-obamacare-in-2014-is-a-trap-for-gop/
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