Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Tuesday that Democrats were wrong to pass Obamacare.
"Democrats lost the opportunity the American people gave them. We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem–health care reform," Schumer said.
Schumer conceded that health care was an important issue, but it was not the primary issue.
"The plight of uninsured Americans and the hardships caused by unfair insurance company practices certainly needed to be addressed, but it was not the change we were hired to make," Schumer said. "Americans were crying out for the end to the recession, for better wages and more jobs, not changes in health care."
If Democrats had done the math, they would have realized that health care reform affected just a small portion of the electorate: 5 percent.
"To aim a huge change in mandate at such a small percentage of the electorate made no political sense," Schumer said. "So when Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, ‘The Democrats are not paying enough attention to me,’" Schumer said.