Democrats leap with joy and horror.

Democrats are giddy with joy at what they consider an act of political suicide by Republicans.   

My inbox is full of messages of shock and horror:  

Nancy Pelosi:  "Sickened by this. . . . It breaks my heart."

Oregon Democratic Party, Deputy Director: "Trumpcare devastates Medicare funding!"

Oregon Democratic Party Director:  "Greg Walden and House Republicans voted to take away health care from millions.

Planned Parenthood:  "The House just passed a bill to raise healthcare costs."

Ron Wyden:  "Devastating for anyone with pre-existing conditions."

Donations are pouring in.

Jeff Merkley: "The incredibly destructive deed is done."

There is a premise underlying all of this:  the public actually does want and expect Americans--at least legal American citizens--to have access to health care.    

These emails from Democrats do not reflect despair.  They reflect exhilaration at the act of political suicide by Republicans.

Medicare covers almost everyone over 65.  People of working age generally seek employers "with benefits."  The current system leaves gaps, particularly families of the working poor and people who cannot get insurance because they are a bad risk.   If the people who cannot afford it or cannot get it should, in fact, be able to get it then it leaves a conclusion: people ought to have health care at public expense.

Second Place

Voters in America may now be ready to throw up their hands and say, simply, Medicare for All.  We will see.  For now we know that a great many Americans want the essential protections of Obamacare to stay in place.

Thad Guyer commented on this shift in pubic perception.   He says it is, at bottom, a legacy victory for Obama.   Donald Trump appears eager to rename the legacy, saying Obamacare is dead, it is now Trumpcare.  Trumpcare is simply a weaker, more spotty and inconsistent version of Obamacare.  

The legacy victory for Obama is the sticking point for Trump.  Trump is a competitor.   Like dogs marking territory, Trump needs to erase and mark, higher and better, the Obama legacy.   Trump's problem is that the legacy does not exist in the law.  It exists in the public mind.  Trump did not call for smaller and cheaper health care.   He called for better, really great, terrific health care.   Obama had already won.

Trump cannot bear that thought that the Obama Tower would be bigger than Trump Tower. Obama was president when there was a fundamental shift in public opinion.  Democrats complain about what the GOP is attempting, but they understand they have a winning hand.  Trump's competitive pride and GOP Congressional promises have forced them to do what the public does not want: repeal the protections embedded inside Obamacare.

Thad Guyer Guest Comment:

Thad Guyer

“Obama Just Keeps Winning”

There is no doubt UpClose is right about Republicans owning America’s health care insurance woes, but it will remain joint ownership with Democrats. Republicans will co-own all healthcare problems with Democrats even if the House bill goes nowhere, as they face either a bad fix or no fix of the pre-existing Obamacare malaise. But nothing is going to get Democrats out of their share of the blame, or deny Republicans their share of the credit. Obamacare is like welfare and food stamps, programs that will always be starved and appear incompetently administered, yet begrudgingly necessary. It doesn’t matter which party launched the programs, both parties will always be blamed for their existence and problems, like both parents of a disappointing child. That’s why we call it a dysfunctional Congress, and Congress will always get bad marks from voters. Bad marks is the one sure bipartisan phenomenon, shared blame for entitlement programs, decade after decade, administration after administration, Congress after Congress.

And therein lies the irony, that within the dysfunctional Congress Obama keeps winning. His legacy of national health insurance is now institutionalized, its existence now fully agreed to by both parties. Indeed, Trump campaigned on the promise of “repeal and replace”, clean repeal was never on his agenda. But when the repeal and “shut it down” Freedom Caucus votes for Obamacare funding and an $8 billion earmark for pre-existing conditions, then you know the legacy has arrived. America, alas, has achieved bipartisan consensus that we must have national health insurance, and that we must fund it and we must keep fixing it. The conservative pundits are right—House Republicans have moved us closer to a single payor system. This is an American values vindication of President Obama.

This win for Obama is not isolated. Trump has also expressly adopted as “a matter of the heart” Obama’s moral imperative that undocumented immigrant children brought here by their illegal immigrant parents cannot be callously ejected. Even Obama’s emotive name for these young immigrants has been institutionalized in a bipartisan lexicon—“Dreamers”. Trump campaigned on delegitimizing Dreamers, on rejecting Obama’s “illegal executive order” that gave legal status to “illegals”. That was then, this is now. Obama gave America its bottom line, its fairness threshold, it’s one shared value on illegal immigration-- Dreamers are legitimate members of our society. Trump didn't just accede to it, he’s endorsed it, made it mainstream. Obama’s vision, executive order, morality and legacy have prevailed.

National health insurance and an executive order protecting Dreamers. In the first 100 days of the Trump administration, Barrack Obama has indeed accomplished a lot.