Obama has taken a lot of hits here for failing to get us Single Payer -

[hedgehog]

so why is Hillary inevitable, given that her efforts took serious discussion of health care reform off the table for about 16 years?

[randome]

1. Is Single Payer the only serious health reform you can imagine?

Hillary is not inevitable. By saying she is, you make that more of a possibility so I would suggest to us all that we wait until candidates begin to appear and debate.

Obama did not fail. Congress did.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

[Warren Stupidity]

4. It is the one that has been shown to work

here effectively. It was what Democrats used to be trying to enact, Medicare for everyone, before our party became completely compromised by corporate money.

[randome]

5. I agree that Single Payer is preferred.

But we did get health care reform that is miles ahead what we had before. Republicans are still doing their best to sabotage it and that's only after defeat after defeat on various issues regarding ACA. Obama did not fail. I can understand why some think it's too simplistic to say that he was obstructed but...that's the truth. Obstruction every inch of the way.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[yeoman6987]

9. Republicans had little to say in the matter

Oh they could yell and scream all day long. But the President had the House and Senate with enough votes to have it pass. He just needed to convince the Democratic Senators to pass single payer and he either could not or did not. That is the bottom line.

[randome]

13. He might have been able to do that. Or maybe he calculated that he could not.

Either way, it's still not Obama's fault. Or Hillary's.

Obama was on the front lines. We weren't. I don't see him as a weak man so I don't understand the need for some to paint him as such. He is, when all is said and done, a politician, and I think I'd trust his political instincts more than most. But that's just my opinion.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

[yeoman6987]

16. I don't fault either one, but I do like to point out facts as they

Happened and who he had to work with. I trust him a super majority of the time

[Orsino]

19. The ACA has been shown to have worked, and is projected to continue to work.

It is not universal single-payer, but for millions of Americans it is indeed serious reform. It even includes expanded Medicare rolls.

I could wish that more people had fought, and fought longer, for single-payer, but when that option became a clear impossibility, I'm glad our Dems didn't forget to fight for and win serious health insurance reform.

[Warren Stupidity]

21. The ACA is a colostomy bag attached to a corpse.

Yes it diverts shit as intended. Meanwhile we continue to be sold to corporate for profit health insurance rent farmers, continue to have the highest per capita costs and mediocre results, continue to tie health insurance to employment, reducing our competitiveness and producing ridiculous side effects such as forcing seriously ill people to keep working instead of attending to their illness, and putting those who can't work into bankruptcy and poverty. it is a shit system, and the ACA is at best a modest reform of that shit system.

[Orsino]

22. For millions, it's also a blessing.

The diversions you refer to are saving lives and quality of life. The ACA is not the system; it's a crude bandage on what you correctly call a shit system.

But it works very well for a lot of people.

[hedgehog]

12. I agree with you that half a win was better than none in this case.

With two kids getting coverage who didn't have it before, you bet I'm glad we got this much! Yet some accuse Obama of selling out because he didn't get us Single Payer.

I was pointing out that there are some trying to get us all on the band wagon for Hillary, but that she had a big hand in freezing all discussion of reform for 16 years.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. Obama didn't even try.

Just as he didn't even put the public option on the table.

The insurance companies didn't want either, so he accommodated them.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. It's not that he failed to get single payer

it's the fact that he didn't even try. As many of his (former) cabinet members are admitting -- they guy hates confrontation. To that I say, "What the HELL are you doing in politics, then?"

[edhopper]

3. Blaming Hilary

for the overwhelming effort by Corporations and the Repugs to stop her is inane.
Yes, Bill and her failed. A lesson they learned and grew from.
But she was not the reason it failed. It was because of the same assholes who are doing everything to stop Obama now.

[BlueCaliDem]

6. It's amazing how, even on a Democratic Party supporting site, both Obama and Hillary Clinton - both

Democrats - are blamed for Republican obstructionism and pro-Republican U.S. Media propaganda that are the reason for so much corruption and so little getting done on behalf of average Americans, and then they're vilified for it. This is yet more alarming proof that propaganda can work on everyone - even against everything they believe.

[Andy823]

28. Exactly!

Same people spewing the same crap, and bashing the president on a daily basis, but never giving him credit for anything he does, and there are a hell of a lot of accomplishments to his credit.

[raouldukelives]

15. And don't forget the average Wall St investor. They are a crucial link in the chain of asholes. nt

[edhopper]

23. A BIG part

and they are BIG assholes.

[VanillaRhapsody]

7. only her opponents use that term..

[el_bryanto]

8. They aren't the same people

The people who take Obama to task for not putting Single Payer on the table are probably the ones who think that HRC isn't inevitable and would like someone else credible to vote for.

Or that's my assumption; I could be wrong.

Bryant

[Bluenorthwest]

10. Obama is taken to task for refusing to so much as advocate for the Public Option which he had

very clearly and repeatedly promised would be in 'any bill I sign'. That's very different from 'failing to get us single payer'. Single Payer was not something he had sworn would be in any bill he signed. The Public Option was something he'd sworn would be in any bill he signed. Then he never even mentioned it.

Also, Hillary is not to be blamed for attempting reforms that the Republicans refused. That is on them, the Republicans.

[closeupready]

14. +100 to all your points.

[librechik]

11. oh was that her fault?

funny, I thought Newtie did that. What could The First Lady have done to stop that revolutionary juggernaut? Even The President could do nothing except try to cooperate with the Repubs, and look what they did to him.Disgraced and impeached over his narrative, not any crimes.

No Dem has been able to get much of anything done since 1994 Gingrich decided to make war on liberals and made it Party policy.

The media drives reality in this country, not reality, so of course Hillary's narrative is inevitable. The only other narrative around with as much power is The Bush Dynasty Saga. It's already been floated for the 2016 Denouement.

We are ruled by propaganda, not people.

[cali]

17. no he has not. he's taken hits for not trying. different.

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. That dog won't hunt.

During the 2008 primary, Obama attacked Hillary because her plan for universal health care was mandatory. After the election, Obama learned what dictionaries had known forever; that optional is not universal.

[polichick]

20. Hillary is "inevitable" because she's the corporate/establishment choice...

The big primary battle last time was between two corporate choices - hopefully the next primary battle will include a people's choice, and the people won't be too stupid or fearful to get behind him or her.

[hifiguy]

24. It's not that he "failed" to get single-payer.

It's that he took it off the table at the outset while inviting Big Insurance and Big Pharma into nice comfy chairs at the table. Had he tried for single payer and fallen back to what the ACA is, I'd have had a lot more respect for his effort.

[KG]

25. 'failing'

heh.

[tularetom]

27. I don't think Obama has taken a lot of hits for failing to get single payer

He has deservedly taken some hits for not even trying to get single payer. He started negotiating for health care reform by giving away half his position.

But then, he always does that.