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Democrats Are on a Winning Streak That Could Transform Our Politics
(www.thenation.com)
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this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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Politics
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The Dems had control of the House and a filibuster-proof Senate under Obama... and did jack shit. They could have legitimately transformed healthcare and broken for-profit insurance and the Republicans could do nothing about it; but they bickered amongst themselves until suddenly the insurance companies stopped complaining.
I'm not holding my breath.
While I definitely wish there was more under ACA, but to call it “jack shit” is too far. I know too many people who’ve hugely benefited from it to act like it’s nothing.
Not one single time after seeing someone parrot the "ZOMG Dems could have solved all problems if only they'd used that majority they had under Obama" line have I seen them acknowledge the post like yours that almost inevitably follows it.
None of these people seem to understand political capital.
It also gets credit for being the excuse Democrats gave for 10 years about why health care reform wasn't important anymore. IMO the harm that has come from that momentum halt completely reversed any good the ACA did. If the Democrats treated it like the stepping stone it always was, I would agree it wasn't "jack shit".
What more were they to have done and how? They no longer controlled the House/Senate and the GOP had won on a platform of defunding and dismantling the ACA. What sort of support could be expected right now of the GQP?
They should have kept pushing for a full single-payer healthcare system as the policy platform instead of demonizing anyone who dared suggest it. Whether or not they could enact it yet, they've completely killed the momentum we had from passing the ACA by treating it like it solved everything. So now that's the best we'll ever have for the foreseeable future.
Throwing up the Republicans as an excuse is just typical blame-shifting. As you're clearly aware, they were never going to be part of any solution, so they're pretty irrelevant to the discussion.
The opposition party, that holds the House of Representatives, who has held the entire government budget process hostage multiple times... are irrelevant to you. I think that perhaps you do no understand the legislative process as well as you think you do.
No, you're either not understanding my point or being intentionally obtuse. That the Republicans will oppose national health care reform is a given, and has no relevance on internal party policy. My point is that the Democrats failed to keep momentum even within their own party, and attacked anyone who claimed the ACA was insufficient. 2020 was the first election cycle where they finally admitted the ACA was insufficient.
Shifting between attacking positions and throwing the Republicans up as a get-out-of-argument-free card is exactly the same tired rhetoric the Democratic party has been using for decades.
You've clearly never used ACA. It is helping many millions of people and was recently expanded.
You know what would help more people. Universal healthcare.