Despite Majority Opposition in Court of Public Opinion, Dems Defend ObamaCare at All Costs

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After two years of complaining that “ObamaCare” was a pejorative term for their government healthcare takeover, Democrats suddenly decided last week that they would embrace the name—a signal that Democrats will continue to defend their healthcare disaster at all costs:

DEMS FLIP-FLOP ON WHAT TO CALL THEIR HEALTHCARE DISASTER: NOW IT’S OKAY TO CALL IT “OBAMACARE”: (Dylan Byers, “Media Now Allowed to Say ‘ObamaCare’,” Politico, 3/23/2012)

“DEMS OWN IT. DEMS OWN OBAMACARE”: “Embracing the Obamacare label is partly about acknowledging that the term has entered our language, and partly about disarming the stereotypes in hopes of having more success in focusing the public on the provisions in the law and how people benefit from them. I don’t know whether reformers will win the argument, or if they do, how long that will take. Major reforms aren’t easy, and aren’t easy to sell. But look: Dems own it. Dems own Obamacare.” (Greg Sargent, “Embracing the ‘ObamaCare’ Label,” The Washington Post, 3/23/2012)

WHITE HOUSE PROMOTES “#ILIKEOBAMACARE” HASHTAG ON ANNIVERSARY: “The White House did not mark the event themselves, but democrats did signal that they will not run away from their association to health care reform. The official Barack Obama twitter page retweeted and fired off messages of their own under the hash tag banner ‘#ilikeobamacare’. The move is a significant development because ‘ObamaCare’ is a generally used as a negative name for health care reform designed to attach the president to its passage.” (“GOP Targets Virginia in Anti-ObamaCare Call,” NBC 12 Decision Virginia, 3/23/2012)

JUST DAYS AGO, PELOSI COMPARED OBAMACARE TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: (Peter Kasperowicz, “Pelosi Speech Connects the Healthcare Law and the Declaration of Independence,” The Hill, 3/21/2012)

For their part, House Democrats marked ObamaCare’s second birthday by taking the lead in defending their disastrous healthcare experiment which evidence suggests cost them heavily in 2010:

“THE OBAMA VACUUM: HOUSE DEMS DEFEND” OBAMACARE: (Jonathan Allen and Kate Nocera, “The Obama Vacuum: House Dems Defend Health-Care Reform,” Politico, 3/21/2012)

HOUSE DEMS “GOING ALL OUT TO DEFEND THEIR HEALTH CARE” DISASTER: “House Democrats are going all out to defend their health care reform law as the Supreme Court takes the case next week.” (Jonathan Allen and Kate Nocera, “The Obama Vacuum: House Dems Defend Health-Care Reform,” Politico, 3/21/2012)

REP. XAVIER BECERRA (D-CA): OBAMACARE SUPPORTERS “SHOULD STAND BY” THEIR SUPPORT OF THE LAW: “Despite those numbers, Becerra said Democratic candidates shouldn’t shy away from supporting the law. … ‘Anyone who believes that the Affordable Care Act is good has a good chance of being elected to office and should stand by that.’” (Ed O’Keefe, “Democrats: The More Americans Learn, the More They Love Health Reform,” The Hill, 3/19/2012)

REP. DORIS MATSUI (D-CA): “THE MORE [AMERICANS] FIND OUT ABOUT IT, THEY MORE THEY LIKE IT”: “ ‘The more they find out about it, the more they like it,’ Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) insisted Monday, adding later that “Republicans are now trying to get rid of something, and we’re moving ahead, and people are beginning to feel the positive effects.” (Ed O’Keefe, “Democrats: The More Americans Learn, the More They Love Health Reform,” The Hill, 3/19/2012)

DEM WHIP STENY HOYER SAID “CITIZENS ARE COMING” TO “SEE THE BENEFITS” OF DEMS’ GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER: “But I think there’s very, very strong support in the Democratic Party, and I believe that citizens are coming to that more and more as they see the benefits of that accruing to seniors in terms of their prescription-drug bill being reduced.” (Jessica Brady, “Democrats Willing to Tinker with Health Care Law,” Roll Call, 3/7/2012)

OBAMA SPOKESMAN RECENTLY CLAIMED WHITE HOUSE SPENT “MORE THAN TWO YEARS NOW IN AN EFFORT TO EDUCATE” AMERICANS “ABOUT THE BENEFITS” OF OBAMACARE: “The administration has been involved for more than two years now in an effort to educate the American public about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.” (Press Gaggle by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest en route Richmond, VAMarch 9, 2012)

DEMOCRATS “ACCEPTING—AND IN SOME CASES OPENLY EMBRACING” OBAMA: “But with the economy slowly crawling back to life, a shift in messaging at the White House and a Republican push on social issues, Democrats are accepting — and in some cases openly embracing — the inevitable yoking of their campaigns to Mr. Obama’s as election-year activities accelerate. On Capitol Hill, Democrats have begun to mention Mr. Obama more often and have gone out of their way to publicly back some of his proposals.” (Jennifer Steinhauer, “Democrats Warn to Obama as a Campaign Ally,” The New York Times, 3/8/2012)

THE ED RENDELL STRATEGY: FORMER PA. GOV TOLD DEMS TO “STAND AND DEFEND WHAT YOU’VE DONE” BECAUSE “YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY”: “Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who participated in a separate panel on messaging today, said he encouraged Members to ‘stand and defend what you’ve done, because you can’t run away from them.’” (Jessica Brady, “At Retreat, Democrats Urged to Defend Past Record,” Roll Call, 1/26/2012)

SPOILER ALERT: IT DIDN’T WORK SO WELL LAST TIME: “A top Democrat acknowledged Thursday that President Obama’s health care bill hurt his party in 2010. And a new study suggests it cost the Democrats something pretty specific: their House majority…The study, by five professors from institutions across the country, looks at the health care bill alongside other contentious votes in the 111th Congress and determines that, more so than the stimulus or the cap-and-trade energy bill, it cost Democrats seats. In fact, they lost almost exactly the number of seats that decided the majority.” (Aaron Blake, “Study Shows Health Care Bill May Have Cost Democrats the House,” The Washington Post, 3/9/2012)

Despite the Democrats’ best efforts, ObamaCare remains shockingly unpopular. But the Democrats are moving full speed ahead with their government takeover of healthcare and refuse to cooperate with efforts to fix even parts of the law:

90% OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS VOTE AGAINST REPEALING OBAMACARE’S MEDICARE-GUTTING PANEL: (Roll Call 126, Clerk of U.S. House, 3/20/2012)

ONLY THREE DEMOCRATS JOINED EFFORT TO REPEAL OBAMACARE: Final Vote: 245-189. (Roll Call 14, Clerk of the U.S. House, 1/19/2011)

ABC NEWS/WASHINGTON POST POLL: 55% FAVOR REPEALING ENTIRE HEALTHCARE LAW, ONLY 37% OPPOSE: “Adding that group to the rest, who already favored keeping or killing the law, produces a net result of 55 percent who favor throwing it out, 37 percent who would keep it – another equation in which the legislation comes up short in public support.” (Greg Holyk, “As Health Care Law’s Trial Approaches, Two-Thirds Say Ditch Individual Mandate,” ABC News, 3/19/2012)

TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS SAY THE SUPREME COURT SHOULD RULE THE MANDATE UNCONSTITUTIONAL: “Two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. Supreme Court should throw out either the individual mandate in the federal health care law or the law in its entirety, signaling the depth of public disagreement with that element of the Affordable Care Act.” (Greg Holyk, “As Health Care Law’s Trial Approaches, Two-Thirds Say Ditch Individual Mandate,” ABC News, 3/19/2012)

AP POLL: OBAMACARE “STILL UNPOPULAR”: “The poll found that 35 percent of Americans support the health care law overhaul, while 47 percent oppose it. That’s about the same split as when it passed. Then, 39 percent supported it and 50 percent opposed it.” (“Poll: Obama’s Health Overhaul Still Unpopular, But Fewer Expect Own Care to Worsen,” Associated Press, 3/8/2012)

USA TODAY POLL: 50% SAY GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE TAKEOVER WAS “A BAD THING,” ONLY 42% SAY A GOOD THING: (Susan Page, “Swing States Poll: Health Care Law Hurts Obama in 2012,” USA Today, 2/27/2012)

IN SWING STATES, 53% SAY HEALTHCARE LAW WAS “A BAD THING” AND ONLY 38% SUPPORT IT: (Susan Page, “Swing States Poll: Health Care Law Hurts Obama in 2012,” USA Today, 2/27/2012)

MORE: 75% OF AMERICANS THINK INDIVIDUAL MANDATE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL: (Susan Page, “Swing States Poll: Health Care Law Hurts Obama in 2012,” USA Today, 2/27/2012)