The New York Times ventured into Trumpland in Pennsylvania to sample opinions on the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Shazam. A lot of people who voted for Trump and other politicians who campaigned the last seven years to rid the land of the legislation hold a different view today.

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Said one Jeff Brahin:

“As much as I was against it,” he said, “at this point I’m against the repeal.”

“Now that you’ve insured an additional 20 million people, you can’t just take the insurance away from these people,” he added. “It’s just not the right thing to do.”

And there was Patrick Murphy:

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“I can’t even remember why I opposed it. …..

“Everybody needs some sort of health insurance,” Mr. Murphy said. “They’re trying to repeal Obamacare but they don’t have anything in place.

It’s not just in Pennsylvania.

A Pew survey in January found that 60 percent of Americans believe the federal government should be responsible for ensuring that all Americans have health coverage. That was up from 51 percent last year, and the highest in nearly a decade.

The belief held even among many Republicans: 52 percent of those making below $30,000 a year said the federal government has a responsibility to ensure health coverage, a huge jump from 31 percent last year. And 34 percent of Republicans who make between $30,000 and about $75,000 endorsed that view, up from 14 percent last year.

Which brings us to Arkansas. Do our voters reflect that trend?

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If our representatives in Congress are representative, no. All four House members voted for a punitive Obamacare repeal. Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman say they still favor a repeal without a replacement plan. Surely they’re following constituent wishes and not Republican dogma, right?

Among the leading and not-so-leading countries of the world, health care is among the duties of government, along with education, public safety and infrastructure. This truly is a case of American exceptionalism.

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