(Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Publicly meditating on the past is not a normal activity for vulnerable Members looking to get re-elected. But from his safe Louisville-based district, Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth (D) has the luxury of mulling about what could have been.
In an interview with Roll Call on Wednesday, the three-term lawmaker was asked whether the Affordable Care Act — which will be a burden to Democrats for the second consecutive cycle — was worth the political cost.
“Oh, politically? Politically?” Yarmuth paused for a moment. “Big picture, politically, it probably wasn’t worth it. Policy-wise, it was worth it because it’s going to move the country dramatically in the right direction,” he said. “Even if it were to fail [at the Supreme Court], it’s going to move the country dramatically in the right direction.”
It was a frank admission from a member of a class of House Democrats swept into power in 2006 but that lost its majority, in a large part because of the law that became known as Obamacare in 2010.
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