As a sign that the Clinton Family is seeking to distance itself from President Barack Obama, Chelsea Clinton blasted the “crushing costs” of the president’s signature piece of legislation and his main domestic legacy, Obamacare. She suggested that if her mother Hillary Clinton is elected president she would either fix the problem through some kind of executive action or go to Congress to augment the system of tax credits that help to pay for the costs of health care insurance.
The statements says a number of things about where the Clinton campaign believes where it is at.
First, the Clintons believe that they have put away Bernie Sanders, all but ending any prospect that the venerable socialist from Vermont could pull an upset and steal the nomination from Hillary Clinton. Therefore, the Clinton campaign does not have to attract as many African American votes by pretending to run as Obama’s third term. Clinton thinks that she can now safely distance herself from the man whom she served as secretary of state.
Second, Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster. Premiums, deductibles and copayments are going up while the quality of health care has gone down. For many people, the deductibles for their plans are so high that they might as well not have health insurance at all.
So, Clinton has to promise to fix Obamacare in some way while preserving the concept of government mandated health insurance that she campaigned for with such disastrous results in the early 1990s.
Finally, the Clintons think that “fixing” Obamacare will be an easy matter, much like Mikhail Gorbachev thought that he could fix communism.
If Hillary Clinton becomes president, she is likely to quickly discover that things are not that simple. She will have to go to Congress for a fix. If one or both houses are controlled by Republicans, the legislation that she finds on her desk is not going to be to her liking. Her presidency is likely to start with a protracted struggle over health care reform, an issue that has roiled much of the Obama administration,
