I agree the prospects are grim. But it will be a lot easier to stomach if we fight them every inch of the way. The impact of the extreme elements of the Republican agenda will be wholly negative on the economy. We need a good rejoinder on the health care side on how to clean up the insurance mess. I plan to offer some ideas in the weeks ahead.
The failure of the Clinton initiative to overhaul healthcare in the '90's informed the pragmatic Obama to shoot for less lofty goals. And yet the impact on cutting uninsured levels from 14% to just over 7% is evidence of the wisdom of settling for the politically possible. Numerous studies showed how this progress dropped the level of bad debt, hospital failures, and boosted health measures, particularly where Medicaid expansion was accepted. Ultimately, even many red states finally capitulated when the facts were so glaringly obvious and they could no longer stonewall progress for the sake of empty politics. It makes advocates of Medicare For All wonder what would have happened if they had been politically successful instead of settling for the Affordable Care Act. But we will never know.
The political climate has drastically changed and what seemed irreversible, like Roe v. Wade only a couple years ago, could now be assailed. Ignorant policies like taking down the ACA, mass deportations of alien residents, "no cost" import tariffs, and so on, appear to be on the horizon. We won't know the damage until we have shot ourselves in both feet. We live in very different times, and there's no fixing stupidity: just consequences.
I agree the prospects are grim. But it will be a lot easier to stomach if we fight them every inch of the way. The impact of the extreme elements of the Republican agenda will be wholly negative on the economy. We need a good rejoinder on the health care side on how to clean up the insurance mess. I plan to offer some ideas in the weeks ahead.
So sad.
The failure of the Clinton initiative to overhaul healthcare in the '90's informed the pragmatic Obama to shoot for less lofty goals. And yet the impact on cutting uninsured levels from 14% to just over 7% is evidence of the wisdom of settling for the politically possible. Numerous studies showed how this progress dropped the level of bad debt, hospital failures, and boosted health measures, particularly where Medicaid expansion was accepted. Ultimately, even many red states finally capitulated when the facts were so glaringly obvious and they could no longer stonewall progress for the sake of empty politics. It makes advocates of Medicare For All wonder what would have happened if they had been politically successful instead of settling for the Affordable Care Act. But we will never know.
The political climate has drastically changed and what seemed irreversible, like Roe v. Wade only a couple years ago, could now be assailed. Ignorant policies like taking down the ACA, mass deportations of alien residents, "no cost" import tariffs, and so on, appear to be on the horizon. We won't know the damage until we have shot ourselves in both feet. We live in very different times, and there's no fixing stupidity: just consequences.