For Schumer and Pelosi, the Challenge of a Career With No Margin for Error

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

66% : "The Affordable Care Act was a pretty big challenge," said Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who was in leadership then.
62% : The Affordable Care Act was a feat, involving remarkable twists and multiple near-deaths, but even with 39 Democratic defections, it still passed the House by five votes.
54% : It would extend groundbreaking income support programs, like the child tax credit passed this year, make prekindergarten universal and community college nearly universal, create a federally paid family and medical leave benefit, and try to firmly transition the country away from oil, gas and coal to renewable fuels and electric vehicles, to name just a few of its programs.
51% : She had to coax enough anti-abortion Democrats to back the House's version of the Affordable Care Act without losing liberals, who were already smarting over the Senate's exclusion of a new government-run plan, or "public option," that would have competed with private insurance in the bill's insurance marketplace.
51% : Representatives Lou Correa of California and Jesús García of Illinois have said they are "no's" unless the final bill includes "a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants," a provision the Senate parliamentarian has already disallowed under the chamber's strict budget rules.
50% : Ms. Pelosi had to persuade House Democrats to swallow their pride, forget months of painstaking negotiations and simply pass the Senate's version of the Affordable Care Act, since a House-Senate compromise would be blocked by Republicans.

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