Thursday, December 4, 2014

Chuck Schumer Must Be Running For Something...

You may have missed this during the hubbub of Thanksgiving, but New York Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer (D/NY) dropped a little bomblet on his fellow Democrats.

In a post-Nov. 4 election drubbing, he made a speech at a National Press Club on Nov. 25, he had this to say...
"After passing the stimulus, Democrats should have continued to propose middle-class-oriented programs and built on the partial success of the stimulus, but unfortunately Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them," Schumer said. "We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem—health care reform."

The third-ranking Senate Democrat noted that just about 5 percent of registered voters in the United States lacked health insurance before the implementation of the law, arguing that to focus on a problem affecting such "a small percentage of the electoral made no political sense."

The larger problem, affecting most Americans, he said, was a poor economy resulting from the recession. "When Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, 'The Democrats aren't paying enough attention to me,' " Schumer said.

The health care law should have come later, Schumer argued, after Democrats had passed legislation to help the middle class weather the recession. Had Democrats pushed economic legislation, he said, "the middle class would have been more receptive to the idea that President Obama wanted to help them" and, in turn, they would have been more receptive to the health care law.

Schumer said he told fellow Democrats in the lead-up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act that it was the wrong time to pass the law.

"People thought—and I understand this—lots of people thought this was the only time to do this, it's very important to do. And we should have done it. We just shouldn't have done it first," he said. "We were in the middle of a recession. People were hurting and saying, 'What about me? I'm losing my job. It's not health care that bothers me. What about me?' … About 85 percent of all Americans were fine with their health care in 2009, mainly because it was paid for by either the government or their employer, private sector. So they weren't clamoring. The average middle-class voter, they weren't opposed to doing health care when it started out, but it wasn't at the top of the agenda."
-from National Journal 11/25/2014

Duh, ya' think, Chuck?? Oh, wait, but I thought it was going so well? But then again I can't say we didn't warn him...but...well, from his own words circa 2010, this is what he had to say...
"I am proud to support the historic Affordable Care Act – the 2010 health care reform bill that recently became law and will help over 30 million Americans, including almost 3 million uninsured New Yorkers to gain access to affordable health insurance.,."

Well, you can read the rest...LINK

Oh, he's just sad that his dream of replacing Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader has been dashed and yeah, he's up for re-election in 2016. So we can understand how desperate he may be to distance himself from his vast mistakes. By the way, Chuck has been Chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee since 2010, so he has been the key election strategist on the issues the Dems have been running on and responsible for the losing streak in the mid-term elections.

Any thoughts?

19 comments:

LL said...

New Yorkers seem to love Chuck and to be disposed to forgive his legion of gaffs and political missteps. Of course, he'd like to be president, but that's unlikely to happen. No, I think he'll continue to be re-elected until he dies in office.

In a nation where the man-on-the-street surveys show that something like 5% of the country can correctly identify who the vice president is, goofs like Schumer find permanent homes in DC.

Critch said...

His lips are moving, he's lying...this is all smoke and mirrors..

BevfromNYC said...

LL - The only reason that Schumer keeps getting elected is that there have been no viable candidates to run against him. Now, if Rudy Giuliani would decide to run for the Senate in 2016...Schumer could be defeated.

BevfromNYC said...

Critch - If nothing else, Chuckles is an opportunist. He knows that he has to start now to create the lie that he was against Obamacare before/during/after he campaigned/championed/voted for Obamacare.

BevfromNYC said...

Or he is trying desperately to save Mary Landrieu from her fate on Saturday in the Senate runoff. But I can't believe that Schumer is that stupid to think that he could help.

Anthony said...

Can't say I'm shocked. Democrats spent all year running from Obamacare. Since there is no political gain in embracing it, that isn't going to change anytime soon.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, Chuck is a classic Democratic faker. He will say all kinds of things to make moderates and (some) conservatives like him when he is home in NY, but once in DC, he's full speed leftist.

This is a classic example. He throws out his criticism, but it won't change a thing about the way he votes or acts.

As an aside, he also uses statements like this as bait for corporate donors who now think he might be on their side about changing the law.

Tennessee Jed said...

me thinks the Chuckanator speaks out of both sides of his mouth. To be fair, he is hardly the only politician to do. I remember how John McCain pretended to be very far right around election time, then rarely supported the party. In a perverse kind of way, Chuck seems to be having a kind of "Gruberesque" moment about it all; e.g. "we knew health care is unpopular so we will lie because this is our only chance to jam it up the electorate's ...... His real problem is that liberals believe in Keynes as the best way to pull the country out of deep economic trouble, and historically that hasn't worked

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Chucky is pretty cunning. He sees the writing on the wall. He also knows Obamacare is gonna get a lot worse.

Bev, That would be fun to see Rudy run against Chucky. I like Rudy although I don't agree with him on everything. I like how much of a straight shooter he is, which is rare in politicians.

Critch said...

I've always thought of Chucky as "smarmy", he's just too slick.

Tennessee Jed said...

maybe we need to embrace Chuckie and just hug it out

AndrewPrice said...

I agree with Ben. I think he's trying to distance the party from what they've done. Soon the MSM will take about Obamacare as if it just happened and they will cite to various Democrats as "critics" of Obamacare.

I agree with Jed too. We should hug it out with Shumer. For our side, I nominate an anaconda.

AndrewPrice said...

OT: When I first heard that Bill Cosby had been accused of rape, I couldn't believe it. He doesn't seem to have any of the characteristics of a rapist. Then multiple women repeated the allegation and it struck me that there had to be something to this. It just seemed like too many unconnected women, each of whom had provable links to Cosby to believe that they were all lying.

But now that there seems to be army of women, with the numbers growing every day, I'm starting not to believe any of this. It seems impossible to me that anyone could get away with that much, for that long without there being signs of this everywhere.

Now, the latest allegations, are trying to connect Cosby to a suicide, though the note apparently said nothing to support the allegation nor did it name him, and they are becoming increasingly sensational. Today, some Playboy bunny claims he raped 22 other bunnies. I just don't believe it.

Something strikes me as very wrong about all of this.

BevfromNYC said...

Andrew - I am with you on the Cosby thing. How is it even possible that he has alleged to have drugged and raped so many women and at least one 15 year old, and no one has gone public until now. And if so many Playboy bunnies are involved, wouldn't Hugh Hefner be somehow culpable too?

I was on board until Janice Dickenson (Model/nutburger) made her claims. Then it just becomes more ludicrous by the day. He wasn't THAT powerful in Hollywood in the '60's and '70's to command such silence in the face of serial rape.

Kit said...

re Cosby,

When someone in Hollywood claims he or she was sexually abused there is a 100% chance they are telling the truth and a 100% chance they are lying.

So, given how the entertainment industry works, right now its plausible that some are true and some are lying. That means, hypothetically, that even if some are telling the truth if it is proven that only a couple are lying then the ones who are honest will be on the defensive.

Welcome to Hollywood.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Andrew, LOL! an anaconda would be a perfect Chucky hugger. Preferrably that one that starred in the film Anaconda. That snake had an oscar winning performance.

BevfromNYC said...

No surprise - Casidy beat Landrieu in Louisiana, so that makes 54 in the Senate

Kit said...

54 in the Senate.

6 more in 2016 and we will have a filibuster proof majority. Probably not likely but a man can dream, right?

BevfromNYC said...

Actually, Kit, what we want is good, well-thought out, and rational bi-partisan legislation that benefits all Americans. Not "screw you, we are in charge now" ill-conceived barely literate legislation like we have had for the last 6 years...

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