'Obamacare is the law of the land' (updated)

[ProSense]

'Obamacare is the law of the land'

By Steve Benen

The road to health care reform hasn't exactly been easy. After waiting nearly a century, Americans had to (1) wait for a Democratic president and a large Democratic congressional majority; (2) overcome a Supreme Court challenge; and (3) re-elect that Democratic president.

As of this week, the pieces are in place for the law's prolonged security, and as of yesterday, the nation's leading Republican conceded he's effectively giving up trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans' efforts to undo President Barack Obama's health care reform law appear to have come to an end, as House Speaker John Boehner described it Thursday as the "law of the land."

In an interview with ABC News, the nation's top elected Republican seemed to indicate that Congress wouldn't engage in the type of repeated repeal votes the way it had in the past two years.

<...>

Soon after, the Speaker said on Twitter that the Republican "goal" remains "full repeal" of the law, but it seems clear that this rhetoric is only intended to make the GOP base feel better. Boehner can have any "goals" he likes, but if he doesn't intend to actually waste time pursuing pointless ambitions, these aspirations are irrelevant.

What's more, once the full law is implemented in 2014, it will be all but impossible to roll back its protections and benefits going forward. The Affordable Care Act will take root and join other pillars of modern civil society as basic parts of American public life.

- more -

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/11/09/15048098-obamacare-is-the-law-of-the-land

Updated to add:

The Candidates Who Ran And Won On Obamacare

By Tara Culp-Ressler

Throughout President Obama’s first term, House Republicans spent over 80 hours on more than 30 different votes attempting to repeal health care reform. Altogether, GOP lawmakers wasted over $50 million on their repeated failed attempts to take away health care from 30 million additional Americans — and that trend continued during this year’s campaign season, as Republican candidates poured over $20 million into advertisement campaigns against Obamacare.

But candidates on the other side of the aisle actually saw more success with the opposite approach. The Democratic National Convention, when many Democrats finally started touting Obama’s landmark health reform law, kicked off a season of politicians campaigning on the strength of Obamacare’s merits — and ultimately winning their races. The following candidates successfully ran on their support for Obamacare:

Bill Nelson (D-FL)
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Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)
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Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
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Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
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Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
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Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/11/08/1158931/the-candidates-who-ran-and-won-on-obamacare/

[flamingdem]

1. Even Boehner concedes that Obamacare is

awfully popular.

[ProSense]

2. Yup, and Democrats didn't runaway from it. n/t