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I wish Obama would have repealed the "PATRIOT" Act like he said he would... Thats one of the 3 reasons why I voted for him.... Another one was the closing of Gu

I wish Obama would have repealed the "PATRIOT" Act like he said he would... Thats one of the 3 reasons why I voted for him.... Another one was the closing of Guantanamo....

threatofrain 6y ago
No one party can take on the democratically popular Patriot Act. In your mind, how was this going to go down? Obama gives up health care to trade for Patriot Act? American voters punish Democrats for the loss of patriotism and healthcare?
- amcoastal 6y ago
  It comes up for renewal all the time, he easily could've vetoed it.
- Der_Einzige 6y ago
  Obama had the political capital from 2008-2010 and didn't use it because he cares about "norms" and "working with the other side" rather than engaging in legislating from the oval office like his successor. The real lesson is that obama should have expanded executive power even more and done anything he could (including norm breaking) to executive order away as much of the patriot act and guantanamo as the courts would give him.
  - threatofrain 6y ago
    Obama and the democrats together only had the political opportunity to squeeze a fraction of his healthcare vision, after which it has since been withering away. The fact that presidents are very expected to be re-elected, but not this time, implies that American voters want a return to norms.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
  To be honest, Obamacare is a slap in the face to poor people.
  - frockington1 6y ago
    The 30 hour mandate crushed hourly wage earners ability to work a 40 hour week at one employer
  - dnate 6y ago
    can you explain a bit? I thought this was a reasonable attempt at changing the status quo of the US health care system.
    - 93po 6y ago
      The cost of health insurance has gone up tremendously in the past decade. It's unaffordable to low income families, even the cheapest plan, which still typically requires you spend $10k+ a year out of pocket before insurance covers anything. Additionally, Obama added penalties for not having health insurance (that Trump thankfully stopped, the only good thing he's done I can think of) that financially cripple these families. All you really need to look at is whether the insurance companies liked obamacare: they loved it. Because it was a great deal for them and at the expense of everyone else. It did nothing to lower costs. It did raise the age limit to stay on your parent's plan, disallowed pre-existing conditions exclusions, and made contraception more accessible though. Those could have been passed separately without trying (and failing) to overhaul the entire industry, which ultimately contributed to the ridiculous pricing we see today.
      - officeplant 6y ago
        > Obama added penalties for not having health insurance Which were easily waived during your tax return process by showing you were below X income line. I was making $27K a year at my previous job and couldn't afford health insurance. All I had to do was check off that I couldn't afford it in turbo tax which then verified I was below the cutoff line and the fees were waived.
        MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
        That was for the first year. After that you got charged. Trump did an executive order that discontinued that.
vonmoltke 6y ago
Something to consider, when evaluating cases like this: Politicians like Obama often make promises like this with the same open-source information about these programs that you or I have. What if the failure to follow through was driven by a change of heart caused by having full access the the details of such programs? I'm not saying these details do justify continuation, just that we need to consider that there are things Obama did not know about these programs when he made these statements that he found out when he was elected thus changing his views of these programs or his decisions on where to spend political capital).
- Clubber 6y ago
  I agree that's a possibility and a probability. He was surely convinced otherwise by his advisors, whomever they were. We do live in a democracy and as citizens who elect representatives, we must have that information to be able to elect properly. That's is the concerning disconnect. We need to understand the justifications of Guantanamo and the wars and USA PATRIOT Act and decide for ourselves. But we aren't "allowed" to, which is in itself circumventing democracy. An analogy I would use is buying a car. On the outside it looks great. I have normal concerns, but the salesman won't allow me to either inspect it, or have an independent mechanic inspect it, but he'll allow his mechanic to inspect it and he'll report the results to me. That's what I feel our democracy is like on these issues.

I wish Obama would have repealed the "PATRIOT" Act like he said he would... Thats one of the 3 reasons why I voted for him.... Another one was the closing of Guantanamo....

threatofrain 6y ago

No one party can take on the democratically popular Patriot Act. In your mind, how was this going to go down? Obama gives up health care to trade for Patriot Act? American voters punish Democrats for the loss of patriotism and healthcare?

amcoastal 6y ago
It comes up for renewal all the time, he easily could've vetoed it.
Der_Einzige 6y ago
Obama had the political capital from 2008-2010 and didn't use it because he cares about "norms" and "working with the other side" rather than engaging in legislating from the oval office like his successor. The real lesson is that obama should have expanded executive power even more and done anything he could (including norm breaking) to executive order away as much of the patriot act and guantanamo as the courts would give him.
- threatofrain 6y ago
  Obama and the democrats together only had the political opportunity to squeeze a fraction of his healthcare vision, after which it has since been withering away. The fact that presidents are very expected to be re-elected, but not this time, implies that American voters want a return to norms.
MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
To be honest, Obamacare is a slap in the face to poor people.
- frockington1 6y ago
  The 30 hour mandate crushed hourly wage earners ability to work a 40 hour week at one employer
- dnate 6y ago
  can you explain a bit? I thought this was a reasonable attempt at changing the status quo of the US health care system.
  - 93po 6y ago
    The cost of health insurance has gone up tremendously in the past decade. It's unaffordable to low income families, even the cheapest plan, which still typically requires you spend $10k+ a year out of pocket before insurance covers anything. Additionally, Obama added penalties for not having health insurance (that Trump thankfully stopped, the only good thing he's done I can think of) that financially cripple these families. All you really need to look at is whether the insurance companies liked obamacare: they loved it. Because it was a great deal for them and at the expense of everyone else. It did nothing to lower costs. It did raise the age limit to stay on your parent's plan, disallowed pre-existing conditions exclusions, and made contraception more accessible though. Those could have been passed separately without trying (and failing) to overhaul the entire industry, which ultimately contributed to the ridiculous pricing we see today.
    - officeplant 6y ago
      > Obama added penalties for not having health insurance Which were easily waived during your tax return process by showing you were below X income line. I was making $27K a year at my previous job and couldn't afford health insurance. All I had to do was check off that I couldn't afford it in turbo tax which then verified I was below the cutoff line and the fees were waived.
      - MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
        That was for the first year. After that you got charged. Trump did an executive order that discontinued that.

vonmoltke 6y ago

Something to consider, when evaluating cases like this: Politicians like Obama often make promises like this with the same open-source information about these programs that you or I have. What if the failure to follow through was driven by a change of heart caused by having full access the the details of such programs? I'm not saying these details do justify continuation, just that we need to consider that there are things Obama did not know about these programs when he made these statements that he found out when he was elected thus changing his views of these programs or his decisions on where to spend political capital).

Clubber 6y ago
I agree that's a possibility and a probability. He was surely convinced otherwise by his advisors, whomever they were. We do live in a democracy and as citizens who elect representatives, we must have that information to be able to elect properly. That's is the concerning disconnect. We need to understand the justifications of Guantanamo and the wars and USA PATRIOT Act and decide for ourselves. But we aren't "allowed" to, which is in itself circumventing democracy. An analogy I would use is buying a car. On the outside it looks great. I have normal concerns, but the salesman won't allow me to either inspect it, or have an independent mechanic inspect it, but he'll allow his mechanic to inspect it and he'll report the results to me. That's what I feel our democracy is like on these issues.