this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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I recall they had to drop the public option after Ted Kennedy died and they no longer had a supermajority in the Senate. To get around a Republican filibuster, they had to rely on a less than ideal version of the bill through the reconciliation process
This is the constant Democratic Party refrain. We sure wish we could have done {insert good thing} but when the iron was hot, by golly, we just couldn’t find our hammer.
Then the iron got cold so we had to, shucks, pass a version of the bill that was much more attractive to our donors and screw over the voters.
Golly gee willickers, what rotten luck.
Meanwhile the GOP with the slimmest majority and 3 turncoat Dems. “Time to rewrite the tax code, no need to type it up frank just scribble it in the margin, we will figure out how many billions to give the wealthy once it’s passed”
Except that is literally what happened. Kennedy died while they were negotiating the bill with the GOP (that was fucking stupid and pointless. They got zero GOP votes). Massachusetts has a special election and barely elects Scott brown(R) to fill the seat for 2 years, the first time in 50+ years the state had a GOP senator (Of course, 2 years later, they vote him out. They had a GOP senator just long enough to break the Dems super majority and kill single payer. Thanks massholes.)
So who does that leave as the deciding vote? The "Independent" Joe Lieberman of connecticut, who was heavily funded by insurance companies HQ'd in his state, and refused to vote for the bill with single payer attached.
So Obama, being the poster boy of "compromise can save us"(also fucking stupid), went ahead as is and pulled it out.
That's the actual history. Dems fucked up by trying to find middle ground with the GOP, back when social media didn't have everyone in a vise and you could still lie yourself that that was possible.
It was passed without Republican support, any negotiations were theater because they were bought and payed for. Fuck the ACA.