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Not a day goes by without another allegation or reckless tweet fueling the dysfunction of a deeply divided Republican Congress that fails to govern while hardworking families across the country are left behind. Mired in controversy, Washington Republicans are unable to uphold the basic bargain they made with the American people when they were elected: to fight to create new good-paying jobs and support sustained economic growth.

The simple truth is the economy isn't working the way it should; incomes and wages are not keeping up with the cost of living. Wage stagnation, underemployment, the exploding cost of a college education and the erosion of pensions are leaving many without hope. From rural towns to inner cities, millions can no longer achieve the American dream. Meanwhile, Washington special interests and powerful corporations have acquired more and more wealth.

The three of us represent very different districts in Rhode Island, New York and Illinois. Despite the clear regional differences, what we hear from our constituents is the same: They are tired of this rigged system. What they want most is a fighting chance at building a brighter future for themselves and their families. And what they need is a better deal.

On Monday, House and Senate Democrats will come together to unveil A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future, a bold economic agenda that works for all Americans to bring higher wages, lower costs and the tools Americans need to succeed.

Democrats will deliver real solutions, lasting economic growth and take significant action to improve the lives of the American people.

This agenda was created from the ground up across both the House and the Senate, and includes input from across the entire ideological spectrum. By listening to all voices, the agenda reflects the beautiful mosaic and diversity of our country as well as the hopes, dreams and aspirations of its people.

Through A Better Deal, we will create opportunities for those who need them most, not just those at the very top. We'll make government responsive to all hardworking Americans, not just a select few. And we'll make certain that if you work hard that you can support your family, that you can retire with the security and dignity that you've earned, and that your children can get the skills and knowledge they need to secure good-paying jobs in their hometowns.

For Democrats, this is our collective vision. This is not a slogan. It's who we are and what we intend to accomplish for the American people.

First, our plan starts by creating millions of good-paying, full-time jobs by directly investing in our crumbling infrastructure and putting people back to work building our roads and bridges. To help our small businesses thrive, we will prioritize entrepreneurs over giving tax breaks to special interests. We will fight for a living wage so parents don't have to work three or four jobs just to pay rent. And we will keep our promise to millions of workers who earned a pension, Social Security and Medicare so they can retire with dignity.

Second, we will lower the crippling cost of prescription drugs and the cost of an education that leads to a good job with a college degree or a technical skill. And we will crack down on monopolies and the concentration of economic power that has led to higher prices for consumers, workers and small businesses and make sure Wall Street never endangers Main Street again.

Third, we will offer new tax incentives to employers to invest in their workforce through training and education. To make sure our country stays on the cutting edge, we will bring high-speed internet to every community in America and offer an apprenticeship to millions of new workers. We will encourage innovation, invest in advanced research and ensure start-ups and small businesses can compete and prosper. By making it possible for every American to get the skills, tools and knowledge to find a job or to move up in their career, we'll not only improve individual lives, we'll also stay competitive in the global economy.

The choice we face is simple. We can continue down this path of a rigged system and allow Washington to turn a blind eye to painful economic realities that so many Americans are facing. Or we can stand on the side of the American people. We can invest in hardworking families and build an economy that puts Americans first defined by better jobs, better wages and a better future.

Reps. Cheri Bustos, David Cicilline and Hakeem Jeffries serve as co-chairs of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee. Bustos represents Illinois 17th Congressional District, Cicilline represents Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District and Jeffries represents New York's 8th Congressional District. The views expressed in this commentary are their own.

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Democrats: Our plan for a better deal - The Philadelphia Tribune

President Trump was right when he tweeted: 3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch! It is time for Republicans to allow the Democratic Partys signature law, ObamaCare, to work as the big-government Democrats intended for it to work when they drafted up that government-centered healthcare law for all Americans.

President Trump, and most Republicans in Congress, have gone above and beyond the call of duty to repeal President Obamas failed healthcare law, yet the Democrats and a handful of Republicans have banded together to save the status quo a status quo that is slowly destroying American healthcare.

The one complaint I have with Republicans in Congress right now is that they are way too slow in implementing the Trump agenda. President Trump promptly signed several signature items into law that will streamline the regulatory burden President Obama left on American businesses. Yet, Congress moved like snails on repealing and replacing ObamaCare a crucial, tactical mistake. Hopefully, Congress learns a lesson from this failed effort and responds by moving quickly to pass legislation reforming the tax code and rebuilding Americas crumbling infrastructure.

McCain urges lawmakers to "trust each other" on improving healthcare https://t.co/3T3Y97TBZh pic.twitter.com/KuaRA59LdC

Republicans proposed many different ideas on how to replace ObamaCare. President Trump declared that, The way to make health insurance available to everyone is to lower the cost of health insurance, and that is what we are going do. Thanks to Democrats and a handful of Republicans, cost will continue to skyrocket. But make no mistake: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck SchumerCharles SchumerOPINION | Let ObamaCare implode obstructionist Democrats own that failure The Hill's 12:30 Report Pelosi thanks GOP senators who voted against ObamaCare repeal MORE and President Barack ObamaBarack ObamaOPINION | Let ObamaCare implode obstructionist Democrats own that failure Trump mocked Obama for three chiefs of staff in three years Priebus forced out; Kelly to replace him as WH chief of staff MORE own our healthcare system and are to blame for substandard healthcare and increased cost.

There are only two ways forward on repealing and replacing ObamaCare.

First is for Congress to not give up. Continue to push ideas that will fully repeal every word of ObamaCare and expose the Democratic Party for obstructing the road to a better healthcare system. Make them vote once, twice and hundreds of times to block reforms. If the Democrats want to filibuster and obstruct, make them conduct talking filibusters to they can explain to America why the current broken system is all they deserve.

Bipartisan group of senators start working on healthcare after ObamaCare repeal defeat https://t.co/2fY3tQNfHJ pic.twitter.com/btwR5rOa6G

The second strategy is to let ObamaCare fail and force a better deal going forward. When the inevitable collapse of the Democrats healthcare law happens because the whole idea of a government centered system is a flawed idea Congress needs to let it fail. Moderates and liberals in Congress are going to want to toss cash at insurance companies to bail out the bad decisions Democrats made to establish this bankrupt system, but conservatives need to stand strong. The art of a better deal is leverage, and Republicans will certainly have much more of it in the very near future.

Yet again, President Donald J. Trump has been proven right and the only people standing between a better healthcare system and a collapsed system the are liberal obstructionist leaders, Pelosi and Schumer, who are leading their party into a political abyss. Once the system implodes, their political legacies will reflect that.

Corey R. Lewandowski served as campaign manager for President Donald J. Trump.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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OPINION | Let ObamaCare implode obstructionist Democrats own that failure - The Hill (blog)

OK, Democrats. Its time to stop mucking around.

Cancel the focus groups. Junk the lame slogans (what does A Better Deal even mean? Better than what, and how?)

Its time to take stock of where you arewhere we are as a country given the dire condition of the presidency and the alternatively vulturous and supine impulses of the congressional majority, and formulate a plan to pull us back from the brink.

It has been clear for some time that Democratic control of the congress is the only hope for saving the health care of tens of millions of people and reining in a president in full meltdown over Russiagate before he really breaks something.

Trumps latest gambits have the feel of a despot flailing through his final days clinging to power, making a change of leadership on Capitol Hill all the more urgent. He and his team announced a plan to turn trans peoples military service into a Karl Rovian campaign ornament to give his base in exchange for the wall he cant build and the trade agreements he cant cancel. He and his interior secretary have threatened to destroy the economy of an American statethe very red state of Alaskato try and bludgeon its junior senator into agreeing to take away her constituents health care and thus deliver the GOPs King Joffrey his win.

Worse, Trump and the leadership of the United States Senate dont even care whats in the bill, or what it does to Americans. Meanwhile, Trump is transparently seeking to muscle out his own attorney general for failing to shield Trump and his campaign team from criminal inquiries. And his new communications director is carrying on his bosss thuggish and ignorant ways, knifing the White House chief of staff on live television and Twitter, in a clumsy attempt to frame Reince Priebus as the lead West Wing leaker.

Absent Democratic control of one or both houses of Congress, Donald Trump will surely add to these abrogations of democratic norms by arranging for the firing of Bob Mueller. Republican pledges to remain in session to prevent it notwithstanding, nothing in their behavior up to now suggests this temporary bout of independence would hold, and that if Sessions was fired, they would do anything other than to dutifully snap to attention and confirm whatever lackey the White House puts in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The ever-hopeful media dream is of an ending where John McCain rides heroically to Americas rescue on Russiagate, with his trusty lieutenant Lindsey Graham at his side. But McCain and Graham are not coming to the rescue. They are Party Men who support Donald Trump fully and will likely do so until the bitter end. There will be no Republican heroes. Democrats, as clumsy and scattershot as you are, are going to have to do this on your own.

A Democratic congressional victory next November, resulting in Democrats in the speakers chair and heading the relevant investigative committees, and if possible, helming the Senate too and sidelining the serpentine Mr. McConnell, is the only hope of saving or restoring Medicaid coverage to tens of millions of people who need it, preventing the total collapse of the individual health insurance markets, fully investigating this president and his team for potential collusion with a hostile foreign power, and impeaching him if it is warranted.

Thats a lot to lay on a party that until now has proved unequal to the challenge of the Trump era, and unprepared for the post-Reconstruction style backlash over the Obama era. The party that thought the parade of social progress would never end, for black people and DACA recipients, and gay couples and trans people has seen a Mack truck driven through the band line. Its time to stop playing, and engage in the fight.

So what should Democrats do and say?

On the doing front, Democrats must recognize the unprecedented nature of the threat to their voters next year. Voters who lean Democraticmeaning voters of color and single womenare likely to be subjected to a national onslaught of voter suppression the likes of which has not been seen since the 1950s. That means Democrats should aim to register as many voters as they can, starting now, and mount a national information campaign to get their already registered voters to check and double check their registrations.

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Set your goal high: Aim for a million or more new registrants. And spend the money it takes to reach out to them and convince them of the urgency of the cause, and the relevance to their own wallets, given the bottom that could fall out of their own lives if they lose their health insurance or the subsidies that pay for their aging parents nursing home care. Put an army of lawyers on speed dial, because youre going to need every one of them fight a party that has proven it will do anything, including widespread disenfranchisement and even shrugging off Russian collusion in order to hang on to power. By the way, expect that the Russians will be back. They interfered with Democratic candidates down ticket from Hillary Clinton last year too.

Meanwhile, its time for the party to do a little casting. Choose your most charismatic voices, preferably some who havent worn out their welcome in cable TV green rooms, but also some tried and true All Stars. Kamala Harris, Joe Kennedy, Al Franken, Eric Swalwell, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar come to mind, as do state-level stars like Mitch Landrieu, Stacey Abrams, and Gavin Newsom. Get your congressional and gubernatorial candidates out there too, not just on TV, but in every blue and purple state and every major urban center.

As to what they should say, the message seems pretty simple: Its time to cancel this dangerous and embarrassing reality show and get back to rebuilding America and the American dream.

Rebuilding America requires a few fundamentals. Luckily, one of them is not that red states and blue states fall in love with each other. That dream is just not on the table right now. Theres too much enmity. Too much water under the bridge. Obamas election and reelection broke something in the body politic. Maybe one day it will get repaired, but it wont by the next election. Everyone wants their particular views affirmed and for their opponents to be obliterated. If either the red or the blue states were to propose secession today, the other side would likely say dont let the door hit you on the way out.

But given the urgency of the moment, our disunity doesnt really matter that much now.

America is like a house full of squabbling relatives. We dont have to like each other, but we damned sure better fix the roof before it starts raining.

And our roof is leaking where it counts: in the working of our democracy. Right now, the Congress isnt functioning. The White House sure as hell isnt. Were creaking along on aging, ragged infrastructure. Millions of our fellow citizens fear they or their moms, dads, grandparents or children will be left to face sickness and financial collapse in one fell swoop. Still othersthirst for jobs where they are scarce, or freedom from fear of police. And we face waning confidence among our allies that we are a strong, reliable ally that is not being dictated to and toyed with by a foreign adversary and that we are led by a sound, sane leader.

Democrats must sound the alarm but stay focused. They must succinctly and powerfully tell the country that if given control of Congress, they will do a small number of concrete things, and leave the great driving dream to 2020.

First and foremost: They will save Americans health care by guarding Medicaid, while fixing the very real problems in the individual insurance market, together with any Republicans who will join them, and in consultation with the nations governors.

Second: They will pass legislation, also crafted by working with the states, to invest in literally rebuilding Americaour roads and bridges, highways, electrical grids and water and sewer systems; to finally give us a 21st century national transportation system and to ensure every household has access to the Internet, creating jobs and opportunity. If Republicans cry tax hikes, remind them of their push to steal a trillion dollars from Medicaid to hand over to the wealthy. Thats your money, too, America.

Third: Democrats will pass laws supporting business and scientific innovation to create jobs well into the future, including industries that promote clean air and water and make us independent of imported fossil fuels. We dont need to lie to displaced workers by pretending the coalmines and factories are coming back. America is the innovation nation. We raised entire industries from the dust and ashes of a world war and emerged to build the interstate highway system. We can do it again. We can out-build and out-innovate the world, and put our people back to work in the industries of the future. And we can use our extensive network of community colleges to retrain displaced workers so they can get in on the tech rush, too.

Fourth: Democrats will cancel the clownish Trump reality show by forcing the White House to live under real oversight, ensuring Robert Mueller can do his job (if he still has one) and giving America a real and thorough investigation of Russias intrusion into our election. No party can make Donald Trump behave like a rational adult, but he can be boxed in by a Congress willing to assert itself.

And fifth: They will return the Congress to the American people, putting an end to secret committees who write legislation behind closed doors and conspire in the dark to steal health care from the sick and the elderly in the dead of night. With an open Congress that does its business in the daylight, we can prepare to tackle the weighty issues in our culture: immigration, refugees, policing, drug legalization, and drug addiction, and whether to move to truly universal, single payer health care.

Those are big debates worth having, but we cant even begin, with the Congress and the White House in the state theyre in, and while the fundamentals of our democracy are being sawed off and hammered into dust.

The White House and the GOP want us wasting valuable time fighting over where people relieve themselves, whether to turf our thousands of serving soldiers, sailors and airmen on the whim of a man who five times refused his countrys call to service, or over whether millions of phantom voters denied Trump the popular vote he felt entitled to. They want the opposition fractured and fighting over a bygone primary thats lost to history and over which targeted group to throw over the side to lighten the boat.

Tell America you know better, Democrats. Tell Americans its time to turn off the noise and get back to rebuilding this country; this weathered house, and to have a congress that at least has the backbone to stand up and say enough to the three-ring circus at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

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How the Democrats Can Pull Us Back From the Brink - Daily Beast

Soon after President Donald Trump ordered that transgender people may no longer serve in the military, one anonymous White House official boasted about how the new policy would trap Senate Democrats running for reelection in the Rust Belt: This forces Democrats to take complete ownership of the issue. How will the blue-collar voters in these states respond when senators up for reelection in 2018 like Debbie Stabenow are forced to make their opposition to this a key plank of their campaigns? Raw politics was not the only motivationPOLITICO reported Trumps decision was mainly an effort to resolve a fight in Congress that threatened funding for his border wallbut theres little doubt that some Republicans believe the transgender rights debate drives a wedge between Democrats and critical swing voters.

Trumps shocking announcement comes two days after Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, rolled out a new agenda crafted to circumvent the culture wars. The Better Deal package is laser-focused on the economy and restraining corporate power, with proposals to crack down on monopolies, stop price gouging by pharmaceuticals and raise the minimum wage to $15.

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Schumer explained the underlying reasoning in a New York Times op-ed: Democrats will show the country that were the party on the side of working people and that we stand for three simple things. First, were going to increase peoples pay. Second, were going to reduce their everyday expenses. And third, were going to provide workers with the tools they need for the 21st-century economy.

Several high-profile issues are conspicuously missing from those three simple things: climate change, reproductive freedom, gun control, immigration and discriminationall issues that have become signifiers of membership in ranks of secular, multicultural liberalism. But if Democrats thought they could escape being sucked back into a culture war as they pursued white voters without college degrees, Trumps assault on transgender rights was a rude awakening.

A renewal of Bill Clintons the economy, stupid strategy may make sense on paper. But campaigns do not take place on paper. External events, sometimes engineered by your opponent, often intrude on the best-laid plans. In all likelihood, Democrats will have to figure out how to sell the Better Deal while simultaneously defending their commitment to multiculturalism.

It would be unfair to conclude that the Better Deal omissions are tantamount to abandonment. In fact, Schumer quickly stood up for transgender soldiers, as did Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, all facing tough reelection battles next year. But these responses keep economic and social issues independent of each other, suggesting Democrats will try to pivot back to an economics-only message as soon as possible. Thats a missed opportunity. The transgender soldier controversy is a chance to test a message strategy that incorporates the essence of the entire Democratic platform: that no matter what your background, your occupation, where you live or where you went to school, America wont leave you behind.

Democrats are probably feeling pretty good about the pushback they delivered to Trump. Two recent studies were quickly taken off the shelf and shared widely online, showing that transgender soldiers have made little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness, and their health care needs add a negligible cost. Several Republican senators broke with Trump, including some from deep red territory like Richard Shelby of Alabama and Orrin Hatch of Utah. McCaskills response was to share Sen. John McCains statement, which read, We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do soand should be treated as the patriots they are. McCaskill only added, what he said.

The bipartisan agreement is a reminder liberals have largely won the culture war declared by Pat Buchanan in 1992, when he railed against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women and stood against putting our wives and daughters and sisters into combat units of the United States Army. Back then, Democrats were wary of engaging in these hot-button social issues. The battle over allowing gays to serve openly in the military sapped Clintons political capital in the early months of 1993 and produced the unsatisfying dont ask, dont tell compromise. That political debacle helped Republicans pressure Democrats to back the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, and force it on to Clintons desk with veto-proof majorities.

In 2004, Democrats were flustered when White House political adviser Karl Rove engineered 11 state ballot initiatives banning same-sex marriage in a ploy to boost conservative turnout. Most Democrats responded in halting fashion, opposing marriage rights but supporting a legal equivalence (in 2000, Vermont Gov. Howard Deans signing of landmark civil union legislation was done in private, in an attempt to mitigate backlash). When John Kerry lost the presidential election in 2004, even openly gay Rep. Barney Frank put the blame on then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for provoking the issue by unilaterally legalizing same-sex marriage, only to be restrained by the courts, earlier in the year.

But Barack Obamas reelection after embracing same-sex marriage rights in 2012, the Supreme Court ruling protecting same-sex marriages in 2015, and the resulting public approval, turned the culture war tables. Liberals found fresh confidence to forge ahead in the fight for equal rights, including for transgender people. Today, the Democratic Party, and America in general, are more multicultural and more culturally liberal than in the 1990s. Most Americans oppose laws that force people into bathrooms that do not correspond with their gender identity, and most do not believe being transgender is a choice or a mental illness. The voter backlash against North Carolinas bathroom bill was strong enough to oust the Republican governor who signed the law while simultaneously giving Trump the state's 15 electoral votes. In this climate, no Democratic candidate is going to get very far by throwing sharp elbows at any minority groupas Clinton did during the 1992 campaign when he criticized Rev. Jesse Jackson to his face for giving the controversial rapper-activist Sister Souljah a platform at his Rainbow Coalition conference. In fact, there is an expectation among base voters for a strong response when those issues are thrust into the spotlight. Democrats now have little reason, and ability, to stay silent.

And yet, the culture wars remain a complex political minefield for Democrats. While a majority of Americans often agree with socially liberal positions, many of those voters are electorally impotent, clustered in urban areas outside of swing states. Moreover, swing voters with some liberal sympathies dont feel as passionately about social issues as do core Democrats, and may recoil at an emphasis on minority rights or womens rights. Thats why after months of analyzing polls and focus group data, Democrats crafted an agenda based on the critique best articulated by their Mahoning County party chair: People in the heartland thought the Democratic Party cared more about where someone else went to the restroom than whether they had a good paying job.

The Democrats ability to walk this political tightropebalancing their emphasis on economic and social issuesis challenged by Trump, who views social conservatives as his backstop. Evangelical Christians put their faith in the gleefully sinful Trump on Election Day, and Trump has delivered for them more than any other constituency: installing Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, ending funds for the United Nations Population Fund, which supports contraception, and revoking Obamas order protecting the rights of transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice. Without social conservatives, Trump wouldnt have had the base turnout to eke out a victory. And Trump now has a rock-solid base that prevents him from going into a job approval free fall, and helps keep disgruntled congressional Republicans in line.

So we can expect Trump to keep opening new fronts in the culture war, and Democrats to keep responding in kind. And every time that happens, Democrats will not be able to main a singular focus on their Better Deal.

The recipe for winning back white working-class voters cant be fully cooked inside the controlled conditions of a focus group. Democrats have no choice but to weave together their economic platform with their multicultural principles, so any discussion of minority rights is not perceived as favoring one group over another. No question thats easier said than done, as the White Houses anonymous Machiavellian political adviser proves. But Trumps discriminatory, zero-sum brand of politics presents Democrats with an enormous opportunity.

While Trump tries to cling to power with a loyal yet still limited base, he cedes Democrats the opening for a broader and more durable coalition. But that opportunity cant be seized with the micro-targeting evident in the Better Deal pitch. When it comes to coalition building, there are no short cuts.

Bill Scher is a contributing editor to Politico Magazine, and co-host of the Bloggingheads.tv show The DMZ.

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Democrats Can't Escape the Culture War - POLITICO Magazine

Polling shows growing support among Democrats overall for a government-run health care system amid Republican efforts to tear down the 2010 Affordable Act. | AP Photo

By ADAM CANCRYN

07/27/2017 01:56 PM EDT

Updated 07/27/2017 03:34 PM EDT

A single-payer health care system may be the holy grail for many progressives, but a Republican plan to put Senate Democrats on the record voting for it couldnt get support even from Bernie Sanders.

Democrats on Thursday afternoon sat out a vote on a proposal for a completely government-run health care system, denouncing it as a ploy designed to score political points against vulnerable red-state Democrats and drive a wedge between the party to distract from the GOPs health care struggles.

Story Continued Below

Four Democrats and one independent Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester, Joe Donnelly and Angus King voted with all of the chamber's Republicans against the amendment, which failed 0-57. The four Democrats are facing reelection in states that President Donald Trump won.

Im not going to support something thats a sham, and thats a sham, Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said before the vote. Not at the same time theyre planning to kick people off their health insurance. Its a bait and switch.

The introduction of single-payer health care into a conversation about unwinding Obamacare offers an inflection point for Democrats who have long shied away from endorsing the universal coverage system. The reality is, single payer is gaining steam in the liberal base, and mainstream Democrats like Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have taken up the cause in Congress. A majority of House Democrats support a Medicare for All bill in the House, which is the functional equivalent of a single-payer system.

Thursdays vote, though, wasnt the moment for Democrats to throw down the gauntlet on single payer. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) derided his own amendment as socialized medicine that makes up the heart and soul of the Democratic vision for health care.

Sanders, a Vermont independent whos led the charge for single payer, had vowed to protest the amendment and encouraged other Democrats to do so.

Polling shows growing support among Democrats overall for a government-run health care system amid Republican efforts to tear down the 2010 Affordable Act. A Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll in June found 64 percent of Democrats backed a single-payer or national health plans, while the Pew Research Center that same month found a majority of Democrats support the idea for the first time in three years of polling.

Still, Democratic leaders have long resisted advocating for a massive expansion of the governments role in health care, wary of alienating independent voters and hanging swing-state senators out to dry on whats long been a divisive issue.

The partys economic agenda released this week notably excluded single payer, but Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the idea is on the table among other less divisive options for expanding government-sponsored coverage, such as allowing near retirees to buy into Medicare.

Senate Democrats face a tough electoral map in 2018, raising concerns that full-throated support for single payer could bury the party deeper in the minority. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Tester are among those who have expressed skepticism about a single-payer system.

If Republicans Obamacare repeal effort collapses, liberal activists are hoping to seize the moment to push for single payer. But Tester dismissed the idea as just talk earlier this month.

In this environment, thats all itll be, Tester said.

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Democrats are facing growing pressure from activists on the left who, despite supporting Obamacare, were disappointed that the law left the private insurance system largely intact. McCaskill has walked a tightrope on the issue, telling constituents at a town hall this month that shes concerned about the cost of such a program. However, she said now she believes Obamacare should have included a government-run public option to compete with private insurers.

I was against it at the time, she said in early July. So I think I made a mistake on that.

Democrats hesitant to embrace single payer can point to several failed state efforts to establish their own systems.

Money has proven a major obstacle, with states struggling to raise hundreds of billions of dollars to ensure care for all of their citizens. Vermonts 2014 attempt at establishing single payer collapsed over concerns that payroll taxes on businesses meant to fund the program would hurt the states economy. In Colorado, a single-payer ballot measure opposed by the states Democratic governor was overwhelmingly defeated last year.

Californias Democratic legislature devolved into infighting earlier this year after Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelved legislation creating a single-payer system. It would have cost an estimated $400 billion per year to cover everyone without premiums or out-of-pocket costs, according to a legislative analysis.

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Republicans try to bait Democrats on single-payer vote - Politico