WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles Schumer gave Democrats a talking-to about their obligation to stand up for government’s role in helping struggling middle-income Americans — and his message got swallowed up by a few paragraphs on health care.
If you heard anything about his speech late last month at the National Press Club, you know he said Democrats “blew the opportunity the American people gave them” in the 2008 election by putting “all of our focus on the wrong problem — health care reform.”
The New York Democrat noted that the Affordable Care Act “was aimed at the 36 million Americans who are not covered” and asserted that “to aim a huge change in mandate at such a small percentage of the electorate made no political sense.”
Many supporters of the ACA — I’m one — were upset that one of the most important Democrats in Washington seemed to discount one of the party’s greatest achievements.
So what was Schumer up to? He wanted to call attention to what he, if not the media and his critics, considered the central point: that Democrats could win in 2016 “if and only if we can convince people that government can work and help restore the middle class to prosperity.”