President Barack Obama took a victory lap around the Rose Garden yesterday, as the Affordable Care Act hit the point of no return:
WASHINGTON — The sharp partisan debate over the merits of President Obama's signature health care law isn't about to end.
But with the president's announcement on Tuesday that more than 7.1 million Americans have signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, he has managed a remarkable comeback that not so long ago looked implausible.
In the process, he may also have stiffened the resolve of fellow Democrats up for re-election who have been continuously battered by Republicans over the law's implementation.
Kudos to the President for dragging the nation, parts kicking and screaming, into the mid-20th Century. That many employers are falling all over themselves in support of this action, including many very large health insurance companies, speaks to the wisdom of doing anything to improve the old system. After all, what good is a health insurance plan that has major disincentives to sign up?
It’s not perfect, but it’s the best first step we could rationally expect to take given the idiotic intransigence of those among us who hate poor people and blame them for being poor.
For my part, I always assumed cooler heads would prevail and people would realize what a great deal it is to have health insurance. If anything, I felt 7 million might be shooting too low, not taking into account the massive opposition to the plan from morons and 26 Republican governors who really really hate that they have poor people inside their borders.
This is why I’m not President, however: I’m not cynical enough.
It’s interesting to note that progressive action, like Social Security and Medicare, or the War on Poverty, will meet with intense resistance but reactionary crap like tax cuts and defense spending – while protested strongly – always seem to get a pass in this country. I dream of a day when the opposite will be true, and people start taking responsibility for being a community, and not taking immunity.
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