Rachel Maddow: The GOP Has Put Too Many Eggs in the ObamaCare Basket

‘The horror stories are falling apart, right?’

MADDOW: "The same day that President Obama announced that 7 million people had signed up for health insurance under ObamaCare, he said the law was here to stay, but he would work with anyone to make it better if they wanted to be constructive about it. That same day President Obama signed a fix that does in fact sort of make the law better, at least easier to use. And that's because Republicans, Republicans had very, very quietly passed that constructive little fix to the law and sent it to him for signing. And that may be a Republican political scandal to Republicans, but it may also in the broader sense be the surest proof yet that ObamaCare as a political issue is running out of steam. As a political rallying cry, it may be over. Maybe it's now just boring health policy. Joining us now is frank rich, writer-at-large for New York Magazine. Mr. Rich, it is a pleasure to see you. Thanks for being here."
RICH: "Great to see you, Rachel."
MADDOW: "Is ObamaCare starting to die as a political issue? Is it becoming just policy now?"
RICH: "I think it is becoming just policy. I think that as a political issue, it's still an issue in the midterms only because it's a proxy for Republicans to rally their base because they hate anything with the name Obama in it, so they don't need ObamaCare, they just have to say the word Obama to get the sort of white, older base that is the Republican base that turns up in midterms out. But they have -- they're not for anything really except being against Obama and ObamaCare. It seems to me that ObamaCare could be an issue for the Democrats by starting to say you want -- young people, do you want to lose the coverage you're getting on your parents' policy? Do you want to lose the policies you've gotten?"
MADOW: "Well, these numbers from Gallup saying that the number of people without insurance in this country is dropping at a historic pace. The Republican's like sort of faux substantive critique is too many people are losing their health insurance under this law. More people are losing it than gaining it, sort of feels like that will be the last attempt they can make to attack it in terms of its policy impact. The horror stories are falling apart, right?"
RICH: "Right. They don't have the website as a prop and they don't have, oh, are we going to get to 7 million. That's over. That was easy to understand stuff. Everyone understands a website that's messed up. They don't have that anymore. Now they have actually insured people. Keep in mind, facts are not necessarily required for them to keep doing -- you know, being against it, but the truth is the Democrats can just turn the tables on them. Look at the Ryan budget, which besides calling for the repeal once again of ObamaCare and those goodies if you will that people now have from the law, you know, turning Medicare into whatever, premium support or something that's obviously going to really hurt Medicare, so Democrats have do you want to take away medical care from young and old, from the newly insured and those who thought they had a secure government program?"
MADDOW: "Right. It is striking to me in political terms to see Scott Brown -- I mean, it's always striking in political terms to see Scott brown -- but he essentially was conjured from the dust of the ObamaCare hubbub, right? There's no reason that Scott Brown would exist as a national political figure -- he's hilarious -- were it not for him being able to embody at that particular moment the sort of angry spirit of being against ObamaCare. Now that he is running again, seeing him, Mr. anti-ObamaCare, having no idea what to say when he's asked an ObamaCare question about New Hampshire, it just sort of felt to me like the gig is up."
RICH: "The gig is up. Yes, he is the litmus test from the beginning of the shellacking, from the whole Tea Party movement having some success. And it's literally like the air going out of a balloon. He can't even figure out what state he's running from, so he has -- I guess the kings and queens that he faux conferred with will get him up to speed on foreign policy so he'll have some stand on Syria or the Middle East negotiations. But that was kind of -- it's a great litmus test of how the winds have changed and he is being blown sort of into oblivion it looks like."
MADDOW: "It's the one policy issue that people associate with him. It's the one thing he's always known how to talk about and he's bewildered about it."

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