Sometime last year I gave up entirely on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Not the act itself, of course, but the name. I gave on PPACA and I gave up on ACA. President Obama himself seemed to be OK with it being called Obamacare, so I decided that’s what I’d call it too.
So naturally I’m pleased that the Obama campaign has now made it official:
The campaign launched a Facebook feed Friday featuring a big “I Like Obamacare” logo. The social network rollout also included a Twitter hashtag that the campaign reported become the top trending topic in the world within hours. On the web, an “I Like Obamacare” frontpage popped up on the Obama campaign website.
In an email to supporters, Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said it was time for Democrats to turn the “Obamacare” insult into a badge of honor. “I’m proud of it — and you should be, too,” he wrote. “Here’s why: Because it works.”
This has always seemed fine to me. We have Pell grants and Roth IRAs, so why not Obamacare? Like it or not, that’s what everyone calls it, and it’s the only widely recognized name that PPACA has. What’s more, I never thought of it as an insult in the first place. The masses have spoken, and Obamacare it is.
