That is NOT how things went down with the ACA. It bothers me so much that there always seems to be someone who repeats this. The Democrats went for the ACA during the very small window of time that they had a Senate supermajority, so they didn’t have to depend on the Republicans. Single payer healthcare was considered but could not get the support of all the Democrats needed to pass it. The ACA ended up having to be a compromise in order to get all 60 Democratic votes, including the most conservative Democrats at the time. For example, the ACA was supposed to have a public option, but it could not be pushed through, because of people like Joe Lieberman. It barely got passed as it was. The window of time to succeed was a couple months.
They weren’t counting on Republican votes at all. If they had gone for something more progressive at the time, it would have gone the way of all of the other many failed healthcare reform bills.
That is NOT how things went down with the ACA. It bothers me so much that there always seems to be someone who repeats this. The Democrats went for the ACA during the very small window of time that they had a Senate supermajority, so they didn’t have to depend on the Republicans. Single payer healthcare was considered but could not get the support of all the Democrats needed to pass it. The ACA ended up having to be a compromise in order to get all 60 Democratic votes, including the most conservative Democrats at the time. For example, the ACA was supposed to have a public option, but it could not be pushed through, because of people like Joe Lieberman. It barely got passed as it was. The window of time to succeed was a couple months.
They weren’t counting on Republican votes at all. If they had gone for something more progressive at the time, it would have gone the way of all of the other many failed healthcare reform bills.
Joe Lieberman can go fuck himself