The Sword of Damocles Hanging Over Democrats

Sword of Damocles

Democrats running for reelection in the 2014 mid-terms are going to pay the price for attempting to saddle Americans with the Obamacare job-killing monstrosity. Kimberly Strassel explains here. Not a single Republican legislator voted for the Obamacare beast. The massive healthcare mess Americans are now facing is 100% the fault of Obama and the Democrats. In 2014, the price will be paid at election booths. Meanwhile, Americans have a debacle on their hands.

The numbers aren’t much better in Ms. Shaheen’s New Hampshire, or in Alaska, Louisiana, North Carolina, West Virginia or Montana. The Democrats up for election in these states know that the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads isn’t the Republican Party, but their own president’s law.

The GOP’s aggressive shutdown tactics only forestalled this flight for political cover. It allowed Senate Majority Harry Reid to keep his troops united, on grounds that they needed to make a point. But absent a GOP bogeyman, Democrats quickly realized that they had no further excuses for inaction—save partisan fealty to a failed law. That won’t wash with voters.

The White House’s problem is that political cracks like this don’t get patched; they grow. Until this week, the administration could write off the 20-odd House Democrats who voted with Republicans this summer to delay parts of the law as victims of a tough vote orchestrated by the GOP. But now a numerically significant number of Senate Democrats have, on their own, signaled that it is acceptable for members of the president’s party to demand consequential ObamaCare changes.