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Interesting, so the law passed with zero Republican support but yet it is their fault for all of it's problems. Maybe the Democrats should be responsible for it

by bigtex 10y ago

Interesting, so the law passed with zero Republican support but yet it is their fault for all of it's problems. Maybe the Democrats should be responsible for its failure?

QuantumAphid 10y ago
Zero Republican support was baked-into it from the start. Repubs that did work with the democrats, and had their feedback incorporated (161 amendments) were threatened by House leadership (see: Chuck Grassley, Gang of Six). Obamacare is largely a success. Even the current CBO report shows that it has been working well. The program is only a few years old and needs some tweaking. Its main shortcoming is that it is slightly underfunded, and needs more enrollments from younger people. Also pretty shitty that 19 states would rather see their constituents suffer than to allow the federal government to expand Medicaid for them.
467568985476 10y ago
Why would you consider it a failure? And don't forget that the stubbornness of Republicans is the reason the single payer part of the law was dropped, even though that would have had a much larger effect on the cost of healthcare. Additionally, several Republican governors _refused_ federal money for Medicaid expansion, directly making healthcare less affordable for their constituents purely for the political optics of being able to say they stood up against "Obamacare".
ethbro 10y ago
> Interesting, so the law passed with zero Republican support but yet it is their fault for all of it's problems. "a lot of its failures" And yes, I think that if you're the counterparty and rally all your members to oppose anything that is put up for a vote then you absolutely share responsibility for what comes out. Not least because by withholding your vote you forced them to find a vote elsewhere. So instead of your opinion, they had to cater to someone else's. I don't necessarily blame Congressional Republicans for the choice. In the political calculus of a toxic and rabid media campaign to its base and primary challenges from the right, I understand why they did what they did. But they still don't get a pass by saying "Oh, we voted against that. Therefore we have no responsibility for it."

by bigtex 10y ago

Interesting, so the law passed with zero Republican support but yet it is their fault for all of it's problems. Maybe the Democrats should be responsible for its failure?

QuantumAphid 10y ago

Zero Republican support was baked-into it from the start. Repubs that did work with the democrats, and had their feedback incorporated (161 amendments) were threatened by House leadership (see: Chuck Grassley, Gang of Six). Obamacare is largely a success. Even the current CBO report shows that it has been working well. The program is only a few years old and needs some tweaking. Its main shortcoming is that it is slightly underfunded, and needs more enrollments from younger people. Also pretty shitty that 19 states would rather see their constituents suffer than to allow the federal government to expand Medicaid for them.

467568985476 10y ago

Why would you consider it a failure? And don't forget that the stubbornness of Republicans is the reason the single payer part of the law was dropped, even though that would have had a much larger effect on the cost of healthcare. Additionally, several Republican governors _refused_ federal money for Medicaid expansion, directly making healthcare less affordable for their constituents purely for the political optics of being able to say they stood up against "Obamacare".

ethbro 10y ago

> Interesting, so the law passed with zero Republican support but yet it is their fault for all of it's problems. "a lot of its failures" And yes, I think that if you're the counterparty and rally all your members to oppose anything that is put up for a vote then you absolutely share responsibility for what comes out. Not least because by withholding your vote you forced them to find a vote elsewhere. So instead of your opinion, they had to cater to someone else's. I don't necessarily blame Congressional Republicans for the choice. In the political calculus of a toxic and rabid media campaign to its base and primary challenges from the right, I understand why they did what they did. But they still don't get a pass by saying "Oh, we voted against that. Therefore we have no responsibility for it."