Analysis: Obamacare battle could decide balance of power

The messaging battle is on over repealing and replacing President Barack Obama‘s health insurance law, and the balance of power in Washington may be at stake.

Democrats believe they already lost the public opinion fight over the law once, when they pushed through the Affordable Care Act in the first place, and Republicans grabbed hold of the issue to drive Democrats into the minority. Democrats are determined that this time, they’ll come out on top.

For their part, Republicans are painfully aware that they’re embarking upon the task of repealing and replacing the complex law at their peril. If Democrats get their way, the GOP will own every problem and complication that results from the rework, and there are certain to be many.

For both sides, the repeal-and-replace fight represents a risky and unexpected do-over nearly seven years after Democratic majorities in the House and Senate passed the law on a party-line vote. A voter backlash helped send Democrats into the minority in the House in the 2010 midterms, and Republicans have been using the issue to political benefit ever since. In November’s elections, Donald Trump and GOP House and Senate candidates ran on promises to repeal the law and replace it with something better.

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