President Obama boasts that his “Affordable” Care Act is a success because 7.1 million people registered on his government-run exchanges. This falls miserably short of expectations set only two years ago, but that doesn’t stop him from proclaiming the debate won.

Vulnerable members of his own party disagree. Democrats who voted for Obamacare are desperately trying to patch the scheme’s economic leaks, the Wall Street Journal reports:

“The big idea is to create a cheaper, worse type of coverage on the ObamaCare exchanges. All current plans are more or less interchangeable because of the law's benefit and wealth redistribution mandates. They differ based mainly on how much of the upfront cost is built into the premium, with tiers known as platinum, gold, silver and bronze.

“The Senators want to create a new ‘copper’ policy that would cover 50% of average medical expenses with the rest out of pocket. Are people really clamoring for even higher ObamaCare deductibles? A true fix would deregulate the exchanges and trust American consumers to choose the benefits they want or need, rather than forcing them to pay slightly less for one uniform standard.”