5/26/2011
GOP presidential hopefuls are now being plagued by the troubled health care industry, which is the same problem that hounded Democrats during the mid-term elections. Ever since the overhaul law of President Barack Obama was enacted, which eventually cost some House Democrats their seats in Congress, voter anger seems to have not abated.
The health care law became a huge liability for Democrats during the November 2010 elections. By labeling the law and other measures backed by President Obama as oppressive intrusion of big government, Republicans were able to capture a great number of seats in Congress, making them the majority in the House of Representatives.
However, dissatisfaction over healthcare has also started to infect Republicans who are seeking nomination to be their party’s presidential contender. One of the particular concerns of voters is about the efforts of Republicans to overhaul Medicare, the popular healthcare program for older American citizens.
James Morone, an expert on healthcare policy and politics at Brown University in Rhode Island, said, “Republicans have been so brilliant at framing what should have been a great Democratic success as too much government.”
However, Morone added, “It is much harder to argue against big government, when you are targeting popular programs. So they have a quite complicated argument to make.”
The most prominent Republican caught in the debate is Mitt Romney. He is considered as a front-runner in the race for the nomination, and has struggled to distance himself from the state healthcare plan he designed as Massachusetts governor. This healthcare plan has been dubbed as “Romneycare” by his fellow conservatives who also tagged the president’s overhaul as “Obamacare.”
