LightfighterThis is a very accurate graph of anything in my lifetime in the US.
Paul Rietschka@Lightfighter The worst part about this is the Reaganites, today, are the establishment Democrats, and they control the Democratic party and make damned sure that nothing progressive ever makes it into policy. All against the clear wishes of Democratic voters. The US governing system is so captured that nothing short of revolution can seemingly fix it.
Sheldon@prietschka Obamacare was pretty good before Republicans sabotaged it. I purchased my own insurance since before the ACA and how much I paid and what I got for that money was night and day before and after.
It took 10 years before my premiums were at the same level again and I was 10 years older and was still getting a lot more for my money. Even watered down as it is now, it's better than what was there before.
Blasting Obamacare is both sides are the same revisionism. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good legislation given the constraints that Obama had to work with.
I was deep in the healthcare world at that point and I was really pleased with it as a starting point. People expected a miracle. It wasn't that. It was a good first step.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter The ACA is a piece of shit and isn’t M4A, which is the only answer.
The ACA is a Republican health care plan, we on the left shouldn’t be embracing something that was designed to fail, we should be calling it a piece of shit, throwing it in the trash, and enacting M4A.
Stop thinking so small. You deserve better. We all deserved better in 2010, but Obama was a piece of shit president — a self-serving fraud — so we got very little.
@prietschka Obama wasn't thinking small when he pulled together the ACA. It was what was possible and he barely managed to scrape it together.
M4A sounds awesome on paper, but even if it passed, it would have had a very high risk of blowing up on us. It would have been easy for Republicans to ratfuck because it only addressed one isolated layer of dysfunction in the American healthcare system that's dysfunction all the way down.
I was in healthcare myself and then spent the better part of two years touring hospitals interviewing hospital administrators, architects, technologists, and clinicians about their practices. I saw a lot of shit.
When Obama said if we were starting from scratch, he'd choose single payer, but it wasn't viable anymore at the time, I didn't see it as an excuse like most people. I witnessed that reality, a system ossified into a parallel political system rife with dysfunction. Insurance cos weren't even calling the shots in some places.
The #ACA is not shit.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter You and your attitude is the reason we can’t have nice things.
Seriously, what you just wrote here is absolutely emblematic of the problems America has. And here, it’s you. You. You’re the problem.
Also, Obama traded away a public option while lying to the public and pretending he hadn’t. He was a terrible president and his admin. looks shabbier by the day.
And the ACA? A Republican policy that was destined to fail.
But, again, you are the problem here. Think bigger.
@prietschka look, we're in shitty times, but dismissing every step in the right direction as not being worth the effort makes Republicans' jobs easy.
You want better. I want better, but I'm not going to piss on whatever we fought hard to get.
Years ago there was another Republican plan that got rejected for being a Republican plan. It was Nixons, which ironically ended up way to the left of the system that froze into place in the subsequent years.
Willing to only accept maximum gain when maximum gain isn't anywhere near the table and might actually backfire isn't how we get anywhere.
Yeah, I'm the problem. I'll keep fighting no matter how many setbacks I'm delivered. I'll never see the extend of change I want in my lifetime, but I'm not taking my ball and going home. That's how they win.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter You’re still just proving my point!
Every time you talk about building a better system there’s someone like you saying “no, we can’t do that.” Also, give me a break with the “fighting” bs and your moralizing posturing.
You and your “we can’t do that” attitude, you and your pretending we’re making incremental progress (we’re not, you’re not, it’s a bs excuse) are, again, the problem.
It’s been 16 years since the ACA, you’re not “fighting” for anything.
@sysop408 @Lightfighter I mean, jfc, all you’re doing is making excuses.
Is this not clear? “No, we can’t do that.” Yes, we can. “Obama did the best he could.” No, that Reaganite piece of shit didn’t, he did what he thought would be the easiest win/most aggrandizing to himself. “I’m fighting, and we’ll continue to make incremental progress!” No, you’re not and we’ve been backsliding on health care for years, no progress is being made.
Enough with the excuses! Jfc.