Blame Obama for Passing a ‘Partisan’ Health-Care Bill? What Nonsense.

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/16/blame-obama-for-passing-a-partisan-health-care-bill-what-nonsense.html

Blame Obama for Passing a ‘Partisan’ Health-Care Bill? What Nonsense.
Michael Tomasky
By Michael Tomasky
November 16th 20135:45 am

The GOP idea that Obamacare is flailing because he pushed through a ‘partisan’ bill is beyond Kafkaesque—and Republicans only believe it because they assume everything is about politics.

snip//

Outside the administration, Democrats in the Senate negotiated with Republicans for months. Those Democrats finally did decide, on August 17, that it was time to throw up their hands, and they reluctantly proceeded without Republicans. “Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul…” is how the Times opened its article on the matter. But it wasn’t for want of trying. Democrats tried, for ages.

Why did they stop trying? Maybe because of things like then-Sen. Jim DeMint’s vow July 9 to make health care Obama’s “Waterloo.” Or maybe Democrats took the hint July 16, when they heard Minority Leader Mitch McConnell say, “We’re doing everything we can to defeat it.” Or maybe it was July 22, when Orrin Hatch, once a reasonable conservative, walked out of the Senate negotiations and announced he would not back any bill. That was, of course, the summer of the Tea Party town hall madness.

It was obvious by then—really before, but certainly by the time of Hatch’s departure—that Republicans would never agree to anything about health-care reform. They would say Obama wouldn’t accept their ideas, and there would be about a half an iota of a smidgeon of truth in that protestation, but of course the reason Obama didn’t accept their ideas is that their ideas were far worse than what ended up in the bill. They put out a four-page set of broad principles in June 2009. Then they filled in some details, and the Congressional Budget Office went over it. Unsurprisingly, it was a joke. The CBO found that it would have increased the number of uninsured and raised premiums for millions. Oh, and get this: Under their plan, insurance companies could still have denied coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Ending that is the main point of reform, and ending that is why reform is so hard.

So Republicans gave no support at all, by design, essentially from the beginning. And then they blame Obama for passing a “partisan” bill? It’s beyond Kafkaesque. It really is like an old communist secret-police trick: We will seize most of your farmland and then jail you for failing to live up to the production quotas.

And then they vote 40 times to repeal it. And then Kevin McCarthy, the No. 3 Republican in the House, goes on MSNBC on Thursday, and Chuck Todd asks him if the Republicans want the Affordable Care Act to fail, and he says: “Never.” Never! Can you imagine? Voting to repeal something 40 times is kind of an odd way for a group of people to express their desire to see it succeed.

snip//

Uh, no. Progressive-minded people have been wanting to pass universal health care in the United States for a century. Usually they were Democrats, although back in the day some were Republicans, including Teddy Roosevelt. It has been the major unmet policy goal of American liberalism for decades—not because Democrats want to overpower Republicans politically, but because Democrats want people to have access to health care. Republicans don’t. Since the policy goal makes utterly no sense to them, they assume everything is about politics. Obama wasn’t being “partisan.” He was fulfilling a long-held policy goal—and a central campaign promise, by the way. I thought we were supposed to like it when politicians keep their promises. But now that’s partisan, too, at least to people who see everything through partisan glasses.

[badtoworse]

1. ACA passed without a single Republican vote. To me, that is the essence of partisanship.

And thanks to that, we completely own the ACA, for better or for worse.

[FarCenter]

2. It is actually the product of the Democratic Congress

Obama had not been either a President or a Senator long enough to have much of a clue about health care policy at the time it passed.

[badtoworse]

3. Technically, you're right, but as a practical matter, it won't make any difference.

People have been calling it Obamacare for years now - he's married to it.

Personally, I think the shit storm is just beginning. There was another thread about "You can keep your doctor. period." That one still has to play out and there are othe issues that will hit in 2014. If this mess isn't cleaned up, voters will be reminded about who voted for ACA and who didn't on a daily basis.

[Laelth]

4. Spot on.

The point is to make the law serve all Americans (not the narrow interests to party power). Most Republicans (and a lot of Democrats) have forgotten this.

-Laelth