Liberals/lefties who act like this bill is pointless because it's not left-wing enough for them really annoy me. The point of passing social policy like this is not to prove a point or something, it's to help people and make society better. This bill does that. It expands health insurance coverage to tens of millions of people who didn't have it before. Those are real people, real human beings who can now afford to go to the doctor and treat diseases and ailments that they couldn't before. This policy is only "awful" to idealistic middle-class left-wingers on the internet who are completely removed from the reality of the people whose lives will be materially better because of this legislation.
I actually fully agree with this post. When I looked back on my initial thoughts, I was surprised that I said something so harsh against a piece of legislation that I still zealously defend because of the major impacts it will make in the lives of millions. It's one of the few reasons that I'm proud to consider myself a Democrat and an Obama supporter at this point. At the same time though, do you honestly think that this bill was constructed well as far as long term policy goes? My concerns aren't that it doesn't introduce a single player system or a public option (it was moronic to expect that to happen), my concerns are that it doesn't properly address the skyrocketing costs of care that are strangling the system and that "Obamacare" is doomed to failure in the same way that the health care system would be without it.
No, it wasn't. Obama had the political capital to push that through and supermajorities in both houses. The game wasn't necessarily going to be won, but it would certainly have been worth playing.
I think if actual Universal healthcare was passed without a Republican say in it, there would have been more support from leftists, and less moderates/independants would believe the FOXNews propaganda because there wouldn't be any actual substance to those attacks, with support of almost 50% of the US public rather than 35-40 for the current bill.
