Soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, says last year’s bungled rollout of the Obamacare website hurt Democrats in this year’s midterm elections and that he doesn’t regret pursuing passage of the law when the party did.
“We never recovered from the Obamacare rollout,” Mr. Reid told Politico. “I’m not going to beat up on Obama. The rollout didn’t go well. We never recovered from that.”
Asked about the lessons he drew from the losses, Mr. Reid said: “Have a better rollout of Obamacare.”
Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, faulted President Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats for tackling health care reform in 2009 and 2010, rather than putting more of an emphasis on fixing a still-struggling economy.
“It wasn’t the change we were hired to make,” Mr. Schumer said last month. “Americans were crying out for the end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs — not changes in health care.”
But Mr. Reid said he doesn’t regret moving on the issue.
“I’m not going to go back,” he said. “I mean, we did it. … It’s the hallmark of the first six years of the administration, I think it’s a wonderful legacy for him. I spent months, weeks right in this office, making sure it got done.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.