Obamacare. Maybe you’ve heard of it. It used to be kind of a big deal.
In 2012, Republicans made it the central issue of their election effort.
In 2013, they shut down the government for 16 days in a failed attempt to force defunding of the law.
In January 2016, the House and Senate formally repealed the Affordable Care Act, despite the inevitability of a veto, hoping—as they said at the time—to create a ballot issue for the November election.
Less than 60 days out from the presidential vote, however, the issue of Obamacare has all but vanished from the Republican message. Byron York reported in the Washington Examiner on August 28:
Donald Trump remains virtually silent on Obamacare. Look at Trump's last 10 speeches—the number since Trump began delivering prepared-text teleprompter remarks. All came during a period of bad news about Obamacare. But, according to the texts released by the campaign, one Trump speech didn't mention Obamacare at all, while several others devoted just a few—really, a few—words to the subject.
On September 9, Trump had this to say at the Values Voters summit:
We’re also going to repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare which gives the government control over the lives of everyday citizens. And the numbers are horrendous. Your premiums are going up by 50, 60, 70 percent. The deductible is so high you never get to use it unless you are going to lead a very long and very complex bad period—very, very long. It is a disaster. It’s a disaster, and everybody knows it. And it’s going to die of its own weight anyway, but we’re going to get rid of it and we’re going to replace it with some great, great alternatives—much better health care at a much lower price.
Hillary Clinton wants to have completely government-run health care, which would be a disaster for the liberties and freedoms of all America. That’s what she wants. That’s what she’s aiming at. That’s what Obama wanted. He didn’t quite get there, but he got this, and you see how bad this has been.
And … that’s it.