POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

If Bernie has magical powers, and he was in Congress at the time, why didn't he use his magic wand to make the public option happen?

One wonders. He was there.

[Drew S.]

Completely agree. Reminds me of the Brady bill back in Clinton's term. Only time in 50 years the NRA lost on capitol hill, yet Bubba and the Dems apparently spent that whole 8 years only passing Republican legislation, since Republicans are all about defying the NRA. A lot of Dems put their jobs on the line for that as well and were rewarded with indifference from the base during the next mid-term election.

Maybe some people didn’t like having rights taken away from them?

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

Maybe some people didn’t like having rights taken away from them?

Certainly more important than all the senseless loss of life. I hear ya.

[Slap Shot]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

After scanning through tthe infighting between Kep/Scoobs/rufus/Rover/trix it's no wonder the Dems are a mess.

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

I definitely want single-payer as well, but do people really fail to see that the medicaid expansion was absolutely monumental for millions of people? The health exchanges, subsidies, etc. were only a small part of what the ACA did.
Passing the ACA cost a lot of political capitol. One aspect of that was Nancy Pelosi having to convince a number of Dem Reps to stick their necks out and vote for something that could very likely, and in many cases did, cost them their jobs. It's something people seem to have forgotten too easily.

Sure. But it's too complicated. Something simple, streamlined, and not so reliant on so many arcane structural, funding, and enrollment mechanisms would be cheaper, more efficient, and easier for those people to use. While the ACA has done a lot of good for a lot of people, it's also made them jump through a lot of hoops that makes it harder for them to use it. It doesn't need to be such a mess.


And it wouldn't be if they'd have just started with the liberal position, single-payer, and then just worked back to a compromise of Medicare for all.

[Rover]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

Sure. But it's too complicated. Something simple, streamlined, and not so reliant on so many arcane structural, funding, and enrollment mechanisms would be cheaper, more efficient, and easier for those people to use. While the ACA has done a lot of good for a lot of people, it's also made them jump through a lot of hoops that makes it harder for them to use it. It doesn't need to be such a mess.


And it wouldn't be if they'd have just started with the liberal position, single-payer, and then just worked back to a compromise of Medicare for all.

If Bernie is so persuasive, why has he never managed to get this to happen even though he's been in Congress since like 1987???

Could it be the votes weren't there, so they took what was achievable and moved the ball way downfield? Blame Lieberman if you'd like which is fine, but also recognize without him they didn't have the votes to overcome a filibuster. Sometimes math is hard I realize, but generally 59 and 60 are two different #'s. Important since 60 votes were needed to pass legislation given unified GOP opposition.

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

Who says he's so persuasive?

[Deutsche Gopher Fan]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

So- trump puts massive tariffs on Canada. They retaliate. Now he’s considering punishing them for it...

http://thehill.com/policy/internatio...-canada-report

[Stauber1]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

Sure. But it's too complicated. Something simple, streamlined, and not so reliant on so many arcane structural, funding, and enrollment mechanisms would be cheaper, more efficient, and easier for those people to use. While the ACA has done a lot of good for a lot of people, it's also made them jump through a lot of hoops that makes it harder for them to use it. It doesn't need to be such a mess.


And it wouldn't be if they'd have just started with the liberal position, single-payer, and then just worked back to a compromise of Medicare for all.

That's just not true. The problem is on the state level in states controlled by Republicans who either stubbornly refused funding or cynically worked to make the process convoluted in a way it didn't have to be. But go to a place like MN, OR, WA, etc. and that's just simply not the case.

[Stauber1]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

It cost them their "jobs" because they caved to Joe Liebermann and conservadem types on the public option part rather than holding their feet to the fire and threatening their "jobs". Which is ironic in a number of ways.

I dunno man, all I can say is that I disagree with your recollection.
The problem was dems in purple-red districts who realized this was going to be used against them by republican challengers, and that was exactly what happened. The number of reps who lost seats because their constituents thought the ACA wasn't progressive enough was dwarfed by those whose constituents thought it was "evil socialism" or "gov't overreach" or "death panels."

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

What part of they didn't have 60 votes do you not understand?

They did at one point. And pizzed it away with nothing to show for it.


You care to contemplate how much disastrous legislation the Repubs will pound through if they ever get 60 seats?

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

So- trump puts massive tariffs on Canada. They retaliate. Now he’s considering punishing them for it...

http://thehill.com/policy/internatio...-canada-report

But trade wars are easy to win.

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

That's just not true. The problem is on the state level in states controlled by Republicans who either stubbornly refused funding or cynically worked to make the process convoluted in a way it didn't have to be. But go to a place like MN, OR, WA, etc. and that's just simply not the case.

Which is why the entire structure of the thing was so needlessly complicated, and depended upon a Rube Goldberg mechanism working at 100% efficiency in order for the program to actually work.

What you just wrote as to why it didn't work is exactly why it was such a mess.

[St. Clown]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

So- trump puts massive tariffs on Canada. They retaliate. Now he’s considering punishing them for it...

http://thehill.com/policy/internatio...-canada-report

While I'm in Canada next month, I really hope the locals can separate the American person from the American government.

[rufus]

Re: POTUS 45.34: Spy Gate. No Spy. No Gate.

I dunno man, all I can say is that I disagree with your recollection.
The problem was dems in purple-red districts who realized this was going to be used against them by republican challengers, and that was exactly what happened. The number of reps who lost seats because their constituents thought the ACA wasn't progressive enough was dwarfed by those whose constituents thought it was "evil socialism" or "gov't overreach" or "death panels."

The problem was once they passed it, none of these democrats would fight for it. Pretty much no Democrats would fight for it, explain its benefits, and how it would help people.. They ran away from it as fast as they could. They let the Republicans paint it as government over-reach, socialism, death panels.

Cause no voters like having health insurance.