The ACA is the best he could do. It’s not like a US President can just go around like a wrecking ball ignoring all established law and checks and balances.
The Democrats briefly had a super majority in Obama’s first 2 years, and could have passed universal healthcare, not this limp dick ACA stuff, but yet here we are. Stuck with a patchwork of terrible private insurance where your policy has lifetime maximums, and the shareholders can sentence you to death so that line goes up.
Who would support a citizen cooperative that offers a good private insurance? Under the given circumstances that could be the easiest way to get universal healthcare.
You mean like a health sharing ministry? Good ****ing luck, mate.
Starting our own competitive insurance companies that aim for a 25% of operating costs equivalent liquid asset stockpile and then after that 0% yoy profits could be wildly successful, but the major issue is still that medical prices get set by a cooperation between insurers and hospital corporations and state boards. If we have no method to control prices, like a government would, then people will still suffer and die due to unaffordable care.
Incorrect, it was 58 DNC and for only 72 days.
Ultimately, even Democratic politicians are beholden to wealthy donors, including those associated with the health insurance industry.
In this post-Citizens-United world, the only way to make real change is to have a bunch of people willing to not hold onto power to do the right thing simultaneously. Sadly, the likelihood of that happening is vanishingly small.
You can thank Schumer for that as well.
It’s not like a US President can just go around like a wrecking ball ignoring all established law and checks and balances.
Ha… If this was sarcasm, it’s been underappreciated.
“It’s easy to thik that regular folks can’t make a difference… but look at Luigi!”
Thanks Obomber
ACA sucks, but okay. ACA was a compromise. Not an example of inspiring change.
Yeah, Democrats compromising with Democrats.
change happens in many small steps
Removed by mod
It was passed without Republican support, so I guess you’re describing centrist Democrats?
Removed by mod
seems pretty simple alright you’ve convinced me, so how do we do it?
Removed by mod
If you wait for the perfect solution, you likely will never get it. Similar to pedestrian friendly infrastructure and people’s expectations on day 1.
Removed by mod
What did we actually get since ACA?
Asking for a friend
Removed by mod
slightly less terrible care for millions of Americans
This sold under the same banner as “any lasting change is non-violent.”
incrementalism is just another way to argue for mass passivity.
That’s how we’ve gotten here.
The ACA further enshrined the core rot of our healthcare system into it, FOR PROFIT health insurers.
You included a picture of incremental change.
I’m not from US & can’t really comment on your best options now. Where I am is OK at the moment due to incremental steps, some forward & some backward.
I understand its different for you guys. I can only hope you survive the next few years & recover. I’m sure locals there will have better/more specific advice.Edit: *You
this makes a lot of assumptions about the intent of my message.
I don’t believe in passivity, I believe direct action and violence are a necessary part of defending democracy.
However I also recognize if we expect every change to be immediate and sweeping we may neglect to continue building on that change as we have often done.
As for the ACA, no arguments here it was a smoldering pile of shit replacing a slightly larger, smoldering pile of shit.
It didn’t really replace anything. It was an attempt to build a useful and beneficial system that would support generations moving forward into the future.
But instead it was mashed to support the current generation by keeping a beneficial and useful healthcare system in the future.
People had voted for and candidates had run on healthcare reform and the head of the DNC was adamant about the Public Option as a minimum. Obama fired him once he was elected.
It wasn’t the people being demanding and impatient. It was the panicking oligarchy buying the government back from enacting the will of the people.
who was the person Obama removed? that’s wild
Howard Dean. The other guy from Vermont.
He was replaced with Tim Kaine.
thanks! always interesting to read about stuff i didn’t know
Have you been in a coma for the past couple months?
true, i should have said positive change, very easy to make things worse
Still a capitalist shill, eh?
I’d rather take this capitalist shill than the fascist shill. When Obama is right of the Overton Window middle I’d consider that a success.
thats some obama awards obama stuff right there.
…
People do remember that we ended up with a more conservative system than his Republican opponent wanted, right?
Dems defending the ACA and refusing to keep working on healthcare is a large reason why trump won.
Not to even get into how it’s been almost 20 years and the “incremental improvements” that dem ACA detractors never happened, they never even worked towards them…
Every time an elected moderate/neolineral speaks, they’re lying to someone. If they were honest they’d never get elected, at least not with a D next to their name
I’m more excited that Obama joined BlueSky but yes we’re long overdue for actual universal healthcare legislation. Like 15 years overdue.
Is this what this ACA shill op is about lol
Pathetic fail
Small progress is progress. Did we need actual universal healthcare 15 years ago? Absolutely. Is Obama a great president anyways? You bet.
He’s still got my vote
The ACA blows. Here are my issues with it:
- doesn’t go far enough - I would’ve been better off w/ ACA if my employer didn’t offer coverage (small company of <50 people), but switching would’ve eliminated my employer contribution and the credit
- goes too far - too opinionated about what care counts
The proper solution IMO would’ve been to:
- separate health insurance from employment - employers can offer cash incentives, but you should be able to choose if you want their group coverage or to apply the cash to your own plan
- simplify healthcare coverage terms - most people don’t understand their health coverage, though ACA plans are a bit easier to understand; they should have required all health insurance plans to simplify their coverage
- expand Medicare/Medicaid instead of creating a new healthcare marketplace
But no, they didn’t do any of that. Screw everyone involved. Republicans for neutering the bill, and Democrats for only fighting for the stuff that doesn’t matter as much.
c/croppingishard
Sorry, here ya go. Is that cropped enough?
wow you’re a talent!
Missing a timestamp
While it was a good idea, putting the IRS in charge of it was the stupidest thing ever. If you’re not covered all 12 months you get a big fine. Last year I had issues with the website that was probably coded by some kid whose dad said he was “good with computers” and wasn’t able to get coverage for 4 months. It fucked me over. Fuck the IRS.
The individual mandare penalty went away in 2019
Well, I still owed about a thousand when I’d normally get a refund. I should really brush up on current tax laws.
Trump… A couple of days ago I ended the federal education department. I thought I might wanna check out what the little people are thinking.
Thanks for dropping the “public option” after going into closed door negotiations with the insurance companies for three weeks and coming out with a mandate handing them millions of new captive market participants and putting few, very sacred few limitations or regulatory requirements for how to run their industry. Thanks for dismantling your campaign infrastructure when the GOP started playing “the heel”.
This is the reason why he stopped Bernie. He (and many others in the Democratic Party leadership) knew that only a huge populist movement like Bernie’s could tear power out of the hands of financial/industrial Oligarchs. He’s terrified that if we get some variation of universal healthcare in his lifetime, EEEEEEEVERYONE is going to go back through all that bullshit they said, all the excuses they made, and rub their faces in it. Not only that but also most of these crooked politicians are heeeeaaavily invested in the various private healthcare companies.
I am not a particularly religious person, but I know this to be true: You can’t serve two masters.
I don’t think it’s a pride thing as much as it is a money thing.
I recall they had to drop the public option after Ted Kennedy died and they no longer had a supermajority in the Senate. To get around a Republican filibuster, they had to rely on a less than ideal version of the bill through the reconciliation process
The ACA did NOT pass via reconciliation. It passed with supermajority after the DNC convinced 2 independents to vote with them.
This is the constant Democratic Party refrain. We sure wish we could have done {insert good thing} but when the iron was hot, by golly, we just couldn’t find our hammer.
Then the iron got cold so we had to, shucks, pass a version of the bill that was much more attractive to our donors and screw over the voters.
Golly gee willickers, what rotten luck.
Meanwhile the GOP with the slimmest majority and 3 turncoat Dems. “Time to rewrite the tax code, no need to type it up frank just scribble it in the margin, we will figure out how many billions to give the wealthy once it’s passed”
Except that is literally what happened. Kennedy died while they were negotiating the bill with the GOP (that was fucking stupid and pointless. They got zero GOP votes). Massachusetts has a special election and barely elects Scott brown® to fill the seat for 2 years, the first time in 50+ years the state had a GOP senator (Of course, 2 years later, they vote him out. They had a GOP senator just long enough to break the Dems super majority and kill single payer. Thanks massholes.)
So who does that leave as the deciding vote? The “Independent” Joe Lieberman of connecticut, who was heavily funded by insurance companies HQ’d in his state, and refused to vote for the bill with single payer attached.
So Obama, being the poster boy of “compromise can save us”(also fucking stupid), went ahead as is and pulled it out.
That’s the actual history. Dems fucked up by trying to find middle ground with the GOP, back when social media didn’t have everyone in a vise and you could still lie yourself that that was possible.
Yea the part I’m talking about is when instead of just passing a bill to fix the problem they spent time negotiating with the GOP.
Instead of striking while the iron was hot, you know, passing a bill when they had a super majority. They waited until they lost their super majority, then decided that the filibuster was so sacrosanct that they had to pass a watered down bill that entrenches the power of the insurance companies.
Let not forget that at the time when the Dems were fucking around negotiating with the gop they had said publicly that their primary goal was to obstruct the Obama presidency. That’s also what literally happened.
Agreed. The Obama admin fucked that up by trying to “extend an olive branch” when the gop was slashing at them with knives.
They knew the knives were out, but thought they could turn the other cheek. The sad part is that some of these ancient fucks still think this works. They have nostalgia for the “good ol days” when social media was called “Friendster,” smart phones barely existed, and scandal was something that mattered. That time doesnt exist anymore.
Its knives out now, and anyone who doesn’t have a shiv in hand is gonna be dead soon, one way or another.
It was passed without Republican support, any negotiations were theater because they were bought and payed for. Fuck the ACA.
why is it the only kennedies who died were the ones who didn’t deserve it
That’s not true at all, they never had a true supermajority because they only had 58 DNC, to begin with and the caucusing Independent Joe Lieberman voted against Public Option making it dead in the water.
I guarantee you that if you supported the DNC long enough to get an actual 60 supermajority the likes of which have not been achieved since 1979, then all of your current worries would become a thing of the past.
Legitimate question: if there is a change to the term limits on the office of POTUS, passed by GOP to enable another Trump run, wouldn’t that also allow Obama to run again? If yes, what are the pros and cons of this? Just trying to game this out.
Cons: immediate civil war, making the last one look like a tea party. Pros:
To clarify, you think Obama being on the ballot would be the last straw before violent uprising against or violent repression by the existing administration? Or the removal of term limits?
Removing terms limits, and importantly, disallowing Obama from running due to his 2 consecutive terms as another commenter suggested. Yes I would violently uprise if that happened.
I believe I responded to the other comment you mentioned.
That this was even purposed is a dangerous attempt to test the waters or perhaps just distract from everything else that is going on while also giving those loyal to Trump to show that publicly with low risk. This is not normal.
One congressman (who is also under an FBI investigation) proposed an amendment that would allow presidents who have not served two consecutive terms to run for a third; which takes care of the pesky Obama problem.
This seems like theater, though not without potential harm. An amendment tailored made to exempt only Trump from the 22nd amendment would be an odd one to see ratified by 75% of the states.
Absolutely agree. No way something like this would pass, but I have to almost commend the outside the box thinking when it comes to the Republicans trying to subvert the constitution.
Wouldn’t that need another change in 4 years time, if Trump manages to get two consecutive terms himself? (For argument sake, regardless of his age).
He was milquetoast compared to actual progressive politicians. He folded like all paid opposition party Democrats when it came to the public option.
He put his finger on the scale to get others to drop out all on the same day so Bernie wouldn’t win the nomination and you got Biden instead.
They would likely do away with term limits for Republicans only since they can make their own rules and even if they didn’t Obama wouldn’t run for another term because he would say it isn’t the way the founding fathers wanted and the all important parliamentarian said no.
I agree with most of this. I would rather have seen Bernie in 2016, but timeline jokes aside, we got what we got. I am not trying to ignore the past so much as look to the future.
You think they’d have an election?
Even some of the most established dictatorship and oligarchy governments in the world still have elections, though they are probably not free or fair in all cases. So, yes, I think there will be an election of some sort in 2028, if only to assuage the international community. I admit that I could be wrong, and that the possibility is very scary.
