Democratic super PAC embraces Obama health law

Democrats are defending President Obama’s healthcare law as they attack Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney.

Some strategists have predicted that Obama will try to avoid talking about healthcare during the 2012 campaign. And the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found a sharp decline in Democrats’ support for the law, raising questions about its value even with the Democratic base.

But the Democratic “super PAC” Priorities USA Action says there’s no need to run away from the healthcare overhaul. The group, founded by two former White House staffers, attacks Romney in a new web ad for saying he would repeal Obama’s health law and allow insurers to keep denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

The ad also says Romney would privatize Social Security and de-fund Planned Parenthood.

Bill Burton, a senior strategist at Priorities USA Action and a former deputy White House press secretary, said healthcare is fair game.

“Health care reform is a significant part of President Obama's record and a central plank of Romney's vision for this country,” Burton said. “Few things demonstrate the kind of devastation to the middle class that a Romney presidency would bring like his commitment to rolling back commonsense reforms to our health care system.”