And still, the Republicans are stuck on stupid! They’re still talking about repealing a law that is helping the economy, and helping millions and millions and millions of Americans! And as they talk about repeal, they have no idea on what to replace the law with if they somehow manage to repeal it.
President Obama announced Thursday that 8 million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, calling the feat a success story that Democrats should “forcefully defend and be proud of” in the face of Republican election-year attacks on the law.
The enrollment figure, revised upward from the 7.5 million signups that the administration had announced earlier this month, renewed hopes at the White House that Democrats will be able to overcome the initial rocky rollout of the health law in the fall as they battle to maintain control of the Senate in the midterms this fall.
“This thing is working,” Obama said at an afternoon news conference. Of the GOP, he added: “They said no one would sign up. They were wrong about that. They are wrong to try to repeal a law that is working.”
The final figure is well above the White House’s initial target of 7 million signups.
Republicans, who have fought the law since it was passed by a sharply divided Congress in 2010, escalated their call for the law to be repealed after the problems with the enrollment Web site, which repeatedly broke down in its first few months. Obama’s job approval ratings dropped, and Democrats worried that the bad headlines would harm the party at the ballot box.
But a buoyant Obama said the better-than-expected enrollment news should convince Democrats to not shy away from embracing his signature domestic achievement.
“I don’t think we should apologize for it, and I don’t think we should be defensive about it,” he said. “I think it is a strong, good, right story to tell. I think what the other side is doing and what the other side is offering would strip away protections for those families.”
