Democrats are starting to feel the Bern.
Via Politico:
Last week, a group of Senate Democrats rallied behind single-payer health care at a splashy press conference. This week, the same group is scrambling to beat back the GOP’s latest Obamacare repeal blitz.
The contrast shows the chasm between the two parties’ approach to health care: Republicans claim that Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” pitch fueled their revival of repeal, an argument that even Democratic single-payer foes dismiss as untrue. Yet some Democrats wish more attention had been paid to protecting the Affordable Care Act before some of the party’s biggest names turned to single-payer.
It’s also a reminder that in Washington you can never underestimate the power of a president, even if they don’t always win. Trump wanted one last shot at repealing Obamacare, and Democrats are now struggling to preserve a victory they thought they’d already won.
“I thought that anyone who believed that you should take your eye off the ball before Sept. 30 wasn’t being smart,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who does not support single-payer. “So it doesn’t surprise me that this is coming back.”
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) acknowledged that “maybe” the single-payer rollout had been premature, recalling a Methodist minister who once advised him as governor that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
“In this case the main thing is stabilizing the [Obamacare] exchanges, so people in every state, every county, can have better health insurance at a better cost,” said Carper, who has not signed on to Sanders’ bill. “That’s what we should be about right now.”