Obama Stays Silent on Health Care Debate. Heres Why.

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/obama-stays-silent-on-health-care-debate-heres-why


Obama Stays Silent on Health Care Debate. Here’s Why.
Democrats worry if President Obama tries to publicly save his health care law, he might kill it.
Sam Stein
07.26.17 8:00 PM ET

As the process for repealing and replacing Obamacare incrementally advances through Congress, its namesake remains largely absent from the give-and-take of the debate.


President Barack Obama has weighed into the health care fray only occasionally—and always from a distance—even as his eponymous signature piece of domestic legislation comes under heightened threat.

It is not for lack of want. Aides and advisers say that the former president is, like all Democrats, troubled by ability of Republican leadership to keep repeal efforts alive. One official said he did not expect GOP lawmakers to get even this far. But he is wary of engaging in a highly visible way, even in this critical hour, for fear that it would backfire politically.

“We are acutely aware that opponents of the Affordable Care Act would like no better foil than him,” said one Obama advisor. “We don’t want to make this any harder than it is. Allowing opponents to make this about Obama’s legacy undermines the debate about the actual impact of the law.”

For now, Hill Democrats say they’re comfortable with Obama at a distance. Though the party has been unable to stop repeal-and-replace efforts at critical junctures—the most recent coming in the form of a narrowly-lost vote to start debate in the Senate—the prospect of turning the debate into a Obama-v-Trump narrative is viewed as counterproductive.

snip//

But there is also a larger fear; mainly, that Obama’s involvement would reactivate his political opponents and green light on-the-fence Republicans to side with party leadership. The goal for Democrats, at this juncture, is simply to get more lawmakers to vote no. With the party fully united against repeal-and-replace legislation, it’s not entirely clear how the former president can help with that. It’s not inconceivable that he may hurt.

“I am more than willing to criticize Obama for floating above it all- just not this time,” said Jim Manley, a longtime advisor to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). “{A}nything he says Trump will just uses as a way to distract from his efforts to take away health care for millions of Americans.”

[vi5]

1. The one time I agree with this move....

I've always been critical of the whole 12 dimensional chess bullshit, and I think there were plenty of times he screwed things up by not actively engaging. But this particular time, on this particular debate I fully believe staying out of the fray and letting the Republicans hang themselves is the only move.

[KPN]

13. With you on this one.

[Blue_Adept]

3. How can it be his namesake when it's called the ACA?

I really wish dems at this point would push back when dealing with journos and others to correct people who say Obamacare to say ACA because that's what it is. Otherwise we might as well call social security FDR security and such.

We continue to let the republicans frame the conversation.

[CentralMass]

4. It is what is is. Mitt Romney's version of it in MA was "RomneyCare"

[Blue_Adept]

5. And we only hear it called that through the media and detractors

You never hear it here

[rickford66]

15. At the time, Romney wanted to be identified with it.

He was desperate for a signature legislative accomplishment. Obama didn't ask for his name to be attached.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Kind of hard to stop them, seeing as how they own damned near everything.

They're trying to do the same thing to "progressive" - a word that has no negative connotation whatsoever - as they did to "liberal".

It's amazing how many people actually believe the New Deal was a bad thing, Reagan was a deservedly deified political figure and Hitler was a card-carrying lefty. Anything to make victims into perpetrators and predators into victims.

[Jim Lane]

16. I'd be happy if Social Security were widely known as "FDR Security"

We benefit if people remember which party established a good program.

My recollection is that, after the term "Obamacare" had gained some currency among Republicans, Obama himself reached a similar conclusion. He said something like "Well, I do care." The GOP initially meant the term to be disparaging but I think that approach is backfiring on them.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Looks like his name-sake Health Care program is rope a doping the Republicans.

[ehrnst]

8. There can be very good reasons for silence from some quarters at this time. (nt)

[DownriverDem]

9. Yep

As we are watching trump & the repubs we see they are trying to wipe anything Obama has done totally away. trump is not president of all the people, just his ignorant, hateful & repub Christian base (not true Christians).

[mdbl]

10. It's sad that repuglican legislators and voters are that immature

that they would kill others over their hatred for someone who has done nothing to hurt them.

[sofa king]

11. The Backfire Effect

http://www.skepdic.com/backfireeffect.html

Back in the Obama-Romney debates, I wrote about President Obama's masterful understanding of the Backfire Effect and his refusal to correct the many outright lies Romney told in those debates.

The reason why is because conservatives in particular, when confronted with good, corrective information, become more likely to believe the bad information. Because they're fucking morons, I say.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10021469106

[KPN]

12. Exactly.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. And I also posted a kudos in that thread back then

but eventually DUers bought into the "he lost the debate" ODS bullshit. All I can say is that it was a long 8 years here when it came to our own President, with the sickening gnashing, thrashing, and trashing he got.

[sofa king]

17. Truth.

I can't say I wasn't a part of it, either. I did my share of complaining about how he was the best Republican President since Teddy Roosevelt. Now, looking back, I realize President Obama was charting a middle course because he knew that the liberal position is totally untenable in this climate of a solved, easily deceived demographic that comprises 23% of the population and votes more often than anyone else. They completely overwhelm rational thought every time, with the help of their Russian masters.

But it doesn't make me any happier about it, truth be told.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. Agree.

I think his idea (based on his focusing on pragmatism when faced with the political reality) was to get frameworks in place to both test them for robustness and set them up so they could be built upon once the environment was more conducive. That way you don't waste all your political capital on something that will never pass Congress or try to jam something through that is not ready for prime time, and ultimately fails, making it all the more difficult to broach again (e.g., see the efforts in both Vermont and California to get state-enacted single payer systems and the issues that were eventually uncovered that halted the attempts).