Obamacare is a Lemon

The Obamacare debacle should wipe out Democrats in the 2014 midterm elections. Obamacare is a lemon, pure and simple. Karl Rove writes that as time goes by, Americans like Obamacare even less.

Political considerations have frequently dictated the administration’s actions on ObamaCare. For example, a week after Democrats were shellacked in the 2010 midterm elections, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius boosted discretionary payments to insurance companies by $8.3 billion over three years to mitigate the impact of cuts in the popular Medicare Advantage program until after the 2012 election.

Administration figures and supporters have long said that ObamaCare would become more popular as time went by. It hasn’t. A June 2 NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found 37% thought the health-care plan was a good idea while 49% thought it a bad idea. On May 10, 2010, about two months after ObamaCare passed, it was 38% good idea, 44% bad.

Other surveys show a similar pattern. A June 9 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll found that only 35% of Americans had a favorable impression of the health law, while 43% had an unfavorable opinion. On June 22, 2010, four months after the legislation passed, the Kaiser poll reported 48% favorable, 41% unfavorable. These poll numbers have created fear in the Obama White House about the health law’s impact on Democratic candidates next year.