Vulnerable Senate Democrats from red states are becoming increasingly nervous about their prospects next year because of the lumbering ObamaCare trainwreck.
If voters continue experiencing problems like a balky website, canceled policies and higher premiums, the fallout could be brutal next November, Democrats acknowledge.
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Democrats are clearly anxious to see the issue resolved because their most at-risk senators in 2014 voted for the measure on Christmas Eve 2009. Those Democrats — Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina — all have defended the law in the face of GOP attacks.
But their frustration with the White House is showing, whether it’s Pryor and Hagan backing an extension of Obamacare’s enrollment period, Landrieu proposing legislation to ensure insurance policyholders won’t lose their existing coverage or Begich voicing his fury with the White House.
Asked whether the White House’s credibility had been shot through this latest episode, one Democratic senator said: “You got to have it, to lose it.”
Here’s the Mary Landrieu version: