General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: "Summers wasn't the nominee." [View all]ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...at the Federal level even though it was something he promised to do.
You can go on and on about the ACA and what it has in it, and how the states are free to try stuff. All good. But that does not alter the fact that, when push came to shove in negotiations, Obama caved on a promise he had made. And he caved in a very sneaky way, which makes it worse. He also caved on the individual mandate, something he had campaigned against in the primaries.
Anyway, yes the ACA was an accomplishment. It could and should have been so much more. He had a mandate at the time, he just did not press it as hard as he should have, due to a misguided belief that he could bring "bipartisanship" to DC.
Many of us saw from the get-go what an absurd notion that was.