CNN.com: Obamacare and the failure of half-baked liberalism

[LiberalElite]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/11/opinion/zelizer-obamacare-liberalism/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

Editor's note: Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and "Governing America."

(CNN) -- The rollout of the Affordable Care Act has been filled with problems and controversy. Facing entrenched opposition from a Republican Party that has been determined to subvert the program from the moment it passed, President Barack Obama has frustrated supporters by continuing to offer the GOP plenty of ammunition for their attacks.

The website for purchasing health care has been an embarrassment.

The contradictions between Obama's promises about everyone being able to keep their existing coverage and the reality that millions of Americans would not be able to do so has raised memories of President George H.W. Bush's famous "Read My Lips" pledge.

[Kingofalldems]

1. Well you decided to post this-so what is your opinion?

[LiberalElite]

6. I agree with him - but I'd call it half-assed liberalism

Here, cut and pasted from the middle of it, since you must not have read the whole opinion piece:

----------snip---------
Conservatives have been very effective at defining the national agenda throughout these years, defending the argument that government is the problem, as Ronald Reagan famously said, and nurturing a political coalition that has continually pushed liberals into the corner.

In response, many Democrats concluded that the best strategy was to veer toward the center. They have pushed programs that create incentives for Americans to do certain things within the private market, rather than just offering those services themselves directly through the government.

While many domestic programs in the United States included this kind of mix throughout the 20th century, in recent decades Democrats have embraced this approach even more aggressively for fear that anything more sweeping would die in CongressI
-----snip-------------
I agree with this! When the right-wing started to rise during Reagan's adminstration and continued to flourish unabated, I recall Democrat after Democrat stating "I'm not a liberal." I can't imagine any right-winger ever acting like that. Who stood up for liberalism besides Ted Kennedy??? If you're liberal, BE A FUCKING LIBERAL not a watered-down compromised shadow of one. Stand up for what you believe! As far as the Affordable Care Act, that's not liberal, it's from a right-wing think tank!

[Control-Z]

2. Why are you posting this trash?

Unrec

[indepat]

3. Note to Julian Zelizer and all those he panders to: fuc* off and go f*ck yourselves

[LiberalElite]

9. Did you read the whole thing?

I'm betting the rent you didn't.

[NightWatcher]

4. If your "news" delivers opinion, it's not news but rather commentary.

CNN ceased to be news a while ago.

[LiberalElite]

7. Wow, I can't fool you -

It is an OPINION PIECE.

[Cali_Democrat]

5. dkf?

[LiberalElite]

8. What is dkf?

[grantcart]

11. a recently banned troll that would frequently post trash like this.

[LiberalElite]

12. Oh

Obviously I'm not dkf. I read the whole piece of "trash". BTW

[grantcart]

10. Written and published by people who have health insurance.

Obamacare probably will add 10 years to my life.

[LiberalElite]

13. I'm glad we have it but

we should have single payer. And, ACA should have been set up in a way that the GOP can't fuck it up which they appear to be working overtime to do. But I guess I'm stupid.

[grantcart]

14. No just unfamiliar with how single payer systems have developed in every other situation.

Canada, our closest cousins took 40 years from their fist step to achieve universal single payer

Canada passed the liberal half baked Saskatchewan Hospitalization Act which provided free hospital care to people in one small province in 1946. In 1957 Canada had the first national plan that payed 50% of the hospital costs for any participating province.

Universal health care was established in 1966 but single payer universal coverage wasn't established until 1984.

Every single federal 'liberal' program from Social Security to Medicare to CDC and so on started with a small mission and only increased their mission after gradual acceptance by the public.

The ACA established more than a subsidized quasi public/private universal health insurance model.

It established the constitutional validity of the Federal Government to control the health insurance industry and compel universal enrollment.

Anyone who thinks a more comprehensive plan (like universal single payer) would have gotten the deciding vote from Chief Justice John Roberts to approve its constitutionality may not be stupid, but they don't understand the division of power in the American system. Canada who has no similar executive/legislative/judicial division of power problems took 40 years to move from the first act of universal coverage to single payer. Anyone who thinks that taking over the entire system and getting rid of the entire health insurance industry in a single step was a reasonable alternative given the fractured nature of American politics simply doesn't understand how social programs have been developed in the US.