Obama's Epic Failures

[swchandler]

Come on techno900, rather than heap blame on President Obama for everything under the sun, why not look at what actually happened in legislating healthcare reform. As I remember it, President Obama was initially focused on universal healthcare reform more structured on a single payer outline, like Medicare. But as things turned out, Democrats in Congress, in a long attempt to gain Republican support, morphed healthcare reform into an outline rooted in the Heritage Foundation's conservative plan that was based on a capitalistic competition based system where the private insurance industry was at the foundation. Hardly the socialistic system of health care that is being claimed by the right.

Why was this legislative negotiation and its evolution consistently crapped on by Republicans? It's was quite obvious to me. Republicans didn't want healthcare reform, and they used every opportunity to delay progress and to disembowel and emasculate any attempt at developing a comprehensive plan. It's no small wonder that they were eventually steamrolled by the Democratic majority. As far as President Obama's role in the whole affair, he simply approved and signed the ACA into law. He wasn't the master craftsman behind what Congress came up with, despite what the Republicans say.

Now, is the ACA without flaws and shortcomings. Hardly, but what have Republicans tried to do since the passage of the law? Nothing but numerous wholesale attempts to kill the ACA in its entirety, and pitifully, without any viable replacement. Like I pointed out earlier, Republicans didn't want healthcare reform, and they were committed to killing any vestige of it. That's the unvarnished truth. Now you can surface with a lot of disdain for President Obama and repeat bogus talking points from the right, but that just doesn't work for me. No doubt, you're buying into the BS from the right, and that's your choice, but I challenge you to take a critical eye and really look at what the Republican field of presidential aspirants propose to do to change and/or replace the ACA. I won't hold my breath thinking that any of the potential nominees will offer anything of any dimension or worth.

[jp5]

Some companies are putting retirees on ACA to save money. It is here to stay.

[mac]

JB--the fact that most other countries have some sort of national health care has created a disincentive to create jobs here and an incentive to move jobs overseas. That was one of the motives for the ACA--and, I think, the very similar proposal by the Heritage Foundation. Interesting take on their proposal and the differences in the ACA: http://prospect.org/article/no-obamacare-wasnt-republican-proposal

[swchandler]

mac, I don't subscribe to the commentary presented your linked article. In concept, the Heritage Foundation's plan included a mandatory requirement for Americans to commit to heath insurance, and it even included coverage for folks that lacked the means to pay for health insurance. The principles of the HF plan, even if not as developed and comprehensive as the ACA, still showed a commitment from the right that a developed and responsible vision that healthcare reform was needed and provided a crdible plan to enact it.

The main point that I was trying to emphasize is that the foundation for significant health care reform was available in concept, and that it had the support of the conservative right wing core. The fact that Republicans walked away from the Heritage Foundation's conservative plan is telling. As far as I know, the intellectual right has offered nothing other that the HF plan to address America's health care dilemma. The fact that Republicans couldn't rally behind a comprehensive plan says it all.

[mac]

True that.

[mac]

True that.

[isobars]

Let's see how the leftie freaks, including the media, react to the Texas trooper assassinated by a black man apparently because he was a white cop.

Why did I post this in this thread? Because not only is Obama is not kicking in the teeth of this Black Lives Matter (and white lives do not) movement, he often publicly takes the side of blacks even before the facts emerge.

[mac]

More "non-racial" comments from the Alabama boy that didn't notice segregation. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=upwGGMqzdJ4

[mrgybe]

President Barack Obama is to appear on a television show with Bear Grylls in Alaska, where the British adventurer will give him a "crash course" in how to survive in the wild. The president is to trek through the Alaskan wilderness with the survival expert and former SAS soldier, for a special episode of “Running Wild”, a show in which celebrities are thrown back to nature and pushed to their mental and physical limits.

He is following in the footsteps of other serious and respected statesmen like Kate Winslett, Dion Sanders and Tom Arnold. Celebrity.......yup. Leader of the free world...........not so much.

[coboardhead]

Of course we all expect Mrgybe to be critical of anything, and everything, that Obama does. No news here.

if I were trying to make a point about the effects of global warming, I would probably head to high latitudes or high elevations. So, might be good politics....

I know it is too early to discern if climate change, or simply, climate cycles are at play here. But, the last decade, where I live, at 9000 ft., has been interesting..to say the least. Our, non-frost, growing season used to average 14 days. I don't think we have had a hard frost for 10 weeks. Last summer and the summer before were similar.

Many of us, now, get real vegetable gardens. Petunias grow on my porch. Chanterelle mushroom season extends thru Labor Day...

A couple degrees here changes everything because we have been on that line where most nights it freezes...barely! But, now...........not so much!