Kurt Schrader's "shifting" views on Obamacare

A quick note this morning on one of the Democrats who has been “coming around” on the subject of Obamacare, specifically Oregon Congressman Kurt Schrader. Allahpundit brought you the video yesterday as part of a larger story arc, where Schrader chimed in on just how dishonest the President had been regarding, “If you like your plan..”

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Let’s revisit the highlights of that first.

Very misleading…

I think next year at election time people are going to want to know, was I able to sign up? What is the shape of the benefit package I’m going to get? How much is it going to cost me at the end of the day? I think this will… the sign up problems – the horrendous problems we’re seeing now – will be way in the past. But I think the President was grossly misleading to the American public. I knew right away as a veterinarian, I have my own business, my policies got cancelled even before the Affordable Care Act. I would change policies on a regular basis trying to find the best deal for myself and my employees…

So I think the President saying you can stay with it, and not being honest about how a lot of these policies are going to get cancelled, was grossly misleading to the American public and causing stress and strife at a very difficult time.

But it turns out that this really is a new tune for Schrader to be singing. According to what used to be on his own congressional web site, he was singing with the choir long before he began hitting some sour notes.

In a statement, Alleigh Marre, an NRCC spokeswoman, accused Schrader of “blatantly misleading voters in the face of changing political winds and the plan’s botched rollout.”

According to the GOP committee, Schrader once had a section on his website discussing the new law after it was passed in 2010 that included this language:

“If you are insured and happy with your coverage, nothing changes.”

That description of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — often called Obamacare — is no longer on Schrader’s website. The congressman’s spokesman, Cody Tucker, said he couldn’t discuss the issue until he talked with Schrader, who he said was on a plane for the next several hours.

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To be fair, we should welcome Schrader on board the reality train if he’s willing to acknowledge the mess this has turned into. (And was always destined to be.) But at the same time, I don’t think you get a free pass to begin chucking tomatoes when the wind shifts without owning the fact that you were part of the crew selling the rotten fruit in the first place. This seems awfully convenient timing for somebody who is worried about earning another term in office next year with an angry electorate banging on the doors.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows, but Congressman Schrader is jumping from bed to bed a little too quickly. Own the mess you helped create and then help us clean it up, sir.

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