Associated Press
May 4, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Republicans muscled legislation
scuttling the Obamacare health care law through the House a year ago Friday,
Democrats waved sarcastically and giddily serenaded them with chants of,
"Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, goodbye."
Now, Democrats are trying to make good on their taunts.
They're trying to use the vote as campaign weapon, hammering Republicans for
voting to replace a popular statute with a bill Congress' own budget experts
said would have driven up premiums and the ranks of the uninsured.
They're already using it in ads from Georgia to Arizona
and planning others in their drive to win House control in this November's
elections — often coupling it with December's tax cuts, which
disproportionately benefited businesses and wealthy Americans.
"They walked the plank on a disastrous economic
agenda," said Charlie Kelly, executive director of the House Majority PAC,
which backs Democratic candidates. He said the votes underscore a narrative of:
"Wait a minute, these guys are absolutely not standing with working
families. They're trying to screw me on my health care."
Republican strategists offer mixed views on the issue's
impact, with the most optimistic hoping to damage Democrats by accusing them of
favoring government-financed health care. About a third of Senate Democrats and
two-thirds of House Democrats have backed such legislation, a favorite with the
party's most liberal voters, which Republicans say will prompt government
decision-making about care and tax increases to finance the proposal's huge
costs.
"A bigger government is not something they want to
run on," GOP pollster Jon McHenry said of Democrats.
That's not stopping Democrats from featuring health care
in the campaign's earliest ads.
Georgia Democratic hopeful Bobby Kaple, seeking the
nomination for an Atlanta-area district, says "Thank God for Obamacare"
in his spot showing his two young children, born premature but healthy after
expensive medical bills.
In Arkansas, cancer survivor Clarke Tucker says he'll
"stand up to anyone who tries to take your health insurance" as he
competes for the Democratic nomination for a seat surrounding Little Rock.
"Health care is on their mind every day, and I
understand that," Tucker said of area voters in an interview.
Democrats are also using the issue in their battle for the
Senate, where Republican proposals to scrap Obama's law flopped last summer,
dooming the effort.
Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., seeking to oust GOP Sen. Dean
Heller, has run an ad saying, "Repeal and replace Sen. Dean Heller"
that highlights his support for repeal legislation after initially opposing it.
In Arizona, Democratic Senate hopeful Rep. Kyrsten Sinema
is highlighting her family's loss of health insurance when she was a child,
saying, "I know what it's like for a family to struggle to make ends
meet."
The Democratic charge on health care represents a
turnaround from recent elections. In 2010, just months after passage of the
Affordable Care Act, Democrats lost control of the House as Republicans tapped
into fears about the government's growing role in health care. Four years
later, Republicans grabbed Senate control following the botched rollout of the
health law's online insurance markets and some people's loss of policies that
fell short of the statute's coverage requirements.
The failed GOP repeal effort helped turn the tables. A
Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll last month showed people trust Democrats over
Republicans for handling health care by 18 percentage points. A Kaiser Health
Tracking Poll in February showed Obama's law with a favorable rating from 54
percent of Americans, its highest score in more than 80 Kaiser surveys since
the statute's enactment.
"Voters are very upset with the actions Republicans
took" trying to repeal Obama's law, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who
heads Senate Democrats' campaign committee. "This is an issue that we're
seeing at the top of voters' minds, and this is across all states."
Even some Republicans concede the issue will be a tough
one.
Pennsylvania Rep. Charlie Dent, among only 20 Republicans
who voted against the House repeal bill, said GOP candidates will be vulnerable
because of the bill's impact and because President Donald Trump privately
labeled the GOP measure "mean" a month after it passed.
"That ad more or less writes itself," Dent said
of the inevitable Democratic campaign spots.
Former Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who once headed the House
GOP's campaign organization, said Republicans "would have owned"
health care and steadily growing insurance premiums had they successfully
enacted legislation. Instead, he says, "They may or may not own the
outcomes," adding, "I don't think it's a silver bullet for
Democrats."
Democrats say they've gotten further ammunition from
subsequent GOP actions. These include Trump's halt of federal subsidies that
helped insurers contain some costs and his easing of restrictions on short-term
insurance plans with low costs but skimpy coverage.
Last May, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office
estimated that the House-passed bill would have left 23 million additional
people uninsured by 2026 and boosted premiums an average 20 percent this year.
Marking the vote's anniversary, progressive groups planned
more than a dozen rallies Friday from California to Virginia. The liberal Save
My Care was airing a 30-second television ad in Washington, D.C., showing top
Republicans celebrating the House vote with Trump in the White House Rose
Garden. "We won't forget" appears on a black screen after newscasters
intone the bill's impact, including letting insurers charge higher prices for
people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Associated Press reporters Ricardo
Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas,
contributed.
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