I think their point is that Obama + Dems had enough political capital & voter goodwill to do more. Idk if Obama, specifically, fumbled healthcare, but to go off topic: I believe his admin fumbled the chance to nationalize a few failed banks per the advice of Christina Romer, a not-radical economist.

Their point is wrong, because there were not the votes to do that. Joe Manchin would have been roughly the 15th most conservative Democratic Senator in 2009-2010.

Prob not. Then again, they had the votes for Medicaid expansion. Was a public option, albeit probably a horrendously mean-tested POS, completely out of the question?

The House passed a public option, the Senate had Joe Lieberman, who said he would in no way vote for a public option, and then Ten Kennedy died and we had chaos for a while and Massachusetts elected a Republican making the whole point moot with only a "59" Senate majority.

Was the nuclear option out of the question?

Yes, because again, Joe Manchin wouldn't have been a possible vote 45 out of 60 "Democrats" to make that happen. The nuclear option just was never on the table for long time institutionalists in the US Senate that lost in 2010/2012/2014.

But Senate Dems used the NO in 2013, well after the 2010 Tea Party wave. Could they not have bullied 45 guys in 2008?

Reid controlled his caucus as much as he could on this, he got them to Yes on quite a few bills they didn't support, but on an ideological level you can't get someone to Yes on fundamentally changing the institution you're a part of. The 2013 NO was on appointments and not bills.

You can't even get the Senate GOP today to agree to go full nuclear option on things they actually agree about, it's simply not as easy to break as people think due to the length of tenure by members.

Reid was against using the NO to do fillibuster reform in 2008. Maybe he should get the heat for squandering an historical moment.

Democrats had a total of about 4 months, half of them working months, in the US Senate in 2009-2010 that they could have passed bills. In one of them, they passed what became the ACA since they lost that 60th vote, and then they reconciled what parts they could after the lost that 60th vote.

Open the schools (for online leftists)

The American healthcare system is dogshit.

I’ll take solid stool over diarrhea any day.

Literally sitting in an infusion chair right now, getting IVIg for my autoimmune condition, thanks to insurance that I have because of Obamacare’s ban on screening for preexisting conditions for small group plans. Almost no other country on earth covers this. Thank you Barack Hussein Obama!!

This video has new ideas to win Medicare for All in the U.S. It wins the debate against market fundamentalism. Part of a graphic cartoon series that rewrites economics to include non-money social organizations. Concentrated and thorough. It has lots of applications. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-3C...

I don’t care how you say his name. He’s the reason I have healthcare. That’s the legacy.

The Zoomers think Obamacare is bad and also can’t imagine a life without Obamacare.

people forget he fought a war on coal, gave Americans free phones and toured the world apologizing for American greatness.

Everyone forgets Obamacare wasn't a foregone conclusion! He could have given up, & declared a victory over some small gain (as Clinton admitted she would have); but instead, he stuck with it. Is it perfect? Absolutely not! But "pre-existing condition" isn't a death sentence now.