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From the same edition's opinion section: American politics seems unusually bogged down at present. Blame Barack Obama more than the system http://www.economis

• deleted 17y ago
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  • replicatorblog 17y ago
    It isn't that hard to imagine. GOP presidential front runner launched "universal" health care in Massachusetts. The GOP likely would have come on board for solutions that gave money to state programs. At the national level there could have been consensus on coverage for pre-existing conditions, kicking patients out, etc. They probably would have gone even further if they got thrown a bone on malpractice cases. In the end the idea of creating a massive federal program in a time of financial uncertainty didn't sit well with a majority of Americans or a useful majority of senators.
    • barrkel 17y ago
      Of course, giving money to state programs would have suffered from adverse selection problems, especially if cross-state purchase was allowed.
    • jbooth 17y ago
      The GOP wouldn't have come on board for anything. A few weeks ago the GOP filibustered the routine raising of the debt cap that has to be passed every so often while the gov't's running a deficit. Ok, fine, they didn't have a problem with deficits for the last 8 years but whatever. The next vote? PAYGO rules. The GOP filibustered THAT too. Wtf? And a week later they filibustered the appointment of a deficit reduction commission, which had been originally proposed by republicans. The current state of congress is that the GOP will try to filibuster every single thing that's proposed by a democrat, even if they agree with it.