Obamacare was supposed to be President Barack Obama’s legacy.
But it’s looking like a political millstone.
The mammoth and unpopular health insurance overhaul weighed down Democrats in 2010 when Republicans helped turn seniors to their side.
And now Democrats have unexpectedly had to play defense over Obamacare’s Medicare cuts even as Mitt Romney picked Congressman Paul Ryan as a vice-presidential running mate and drew attention to unpopular Republican plans that cap future Medicare spending.
Central to the Republican attack: Obamacare cut $716 billion in anticipated Medicare spending over a decade. Republicans are driving the message home in TV ads and robocalls bashing Democrats.
“This could cost us the election,” Kelly Ward, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s political director wrote in a fundraising email last week. “We have to get the facts out to voters immediately.”