Schumer Mea Culpa: Passing Obamacare a Mistake

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., now says it was a mistake for the Democrats to pass Obamacare in 2010.

During a speech at the National Press Club, Schumer said the public wanted action on the economy during the recession and that Democrats should have focused more on strengthening the economy.

"After passing the stimulus, Democrats should have continued to propose middle-class-oriented programs and built on the partial success of the stimulus, but unfortunately Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them," Schumer said.

"We took their mandate and put all of our focus on the wrong problem-health care reform," he added. "When Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, 'The Democrats aren't paying enough attention to me.'"

He said the health care system needed to be fixed, but not at that time.

"People thought - and I understand this - lots of people thought this was the only time to do this, it's very important to do. And we should have done it. We just shouldn't have done it first," he said. "We were in the middle of a recession. People were hurting and saying, 'What about me? I'm losing my job. It's not health care that bothers me. What about me?'"

"About 85 percent of all Americans were fine with their health care in 2009, mainly because it was paid for by either by the government or their employer, private sector. So they weren't clamoring," he explained. "The average middle-class voter, they weren't opposed to doing health care when it started out, but it wasn't at the top of the agenda."