A Big Fucking Deal!

The profit motive has not been removed from America's Healthcare system. We haven't instituted single-payer, or even a Public Option to compete with insurance companies, which would have tempered that profit motive in the marketplace. Not only are Insurance Companies still in place, able to continue to chase profit, but they've been given 10's of millions of new customers to reward them for their opposition. Even though the insurance companies' "loss" was the kind of "loss" that any of us would take, this is a big fucking deal. It's a big fucking deal because there are some new rules of the road for insurance companies in exchange for all that new business. I'm sure you know the drill by now; no yearly or lifetime caps, no pre-existing conditions, free preventative care and no dropping coverage when you get sick etc. But the fact that this year plus healthcare debate culminated with President Obama signing a Healthcare bill into a Health Care law is a big fucking deal for so many more reasons.

This was a big fucking deal because President Obama achieved success where so many others have failed. Both Roosevelt's, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton, even Nixon attempted to deal with Health Care in a way that made it a right and not a privilege. Barack Obama, through all of the missteps, compromises, false starts and changing deadlines, eventually accomplished what the others could only attempt. This accomplishment will be cemented into the legacy of the Obama Administration, with 2 ½, and probably 6 ½ more years (yeah I said it…) to add to a mighty strong headliner.

This was a big fucking deal because Democrats showed spine to pass a law that had become politically unpopular. They didn't let losing the Massachusetts Senate seat turn their 60-40 "supermajority" into a 59-41 "minority." They rolled up their sleeves, cleaned up their act and went to work thru the Republican howls about process, tyranny and unconstitutionality. They didn't scapegoat their differing factions, and continued confidently forward. They will be rewarded for this. While it's unlikely that they can hold off a loss of Congressional seats this mid-term election, mid-term election history and the fact that Dems won some districts and states that they had no business winning in '06 and '08 makes some loss likely, they should hold off the landslide the Republicans giddily predicted just a few weeks ago. The 2012 "bounceback" will be stronger as well, with a Base fired up by a significant, if flawed, accomplishment to look to for inspiration.

Now, the Republican Base was fired up by the Healthcare debate as well; the anger and fear that they operated off must be given credit for stoking doubts amongst Americans about the intentions and consequences of the Bill. I wonder though, which Base would be more persuasive knocking on an undecided's door, one that defends what's been done and explain what their candidates want to do to fix the mess largely caused by the other side's control, or the one that doesn't know exactly why they hate "Obamacare," besides it leading us to SocialistNaziIslamoFacistTyrranny?

This was a big fucking deal because passing Healthcare reform, even in this very moderate form, was a realization of a goal born from Liberalism. It won, eventually, because the government "doing something" was better than the government "doing nothing "or "doing very little," which was as close as the GOP came to a real counter-proposal on Healthcare. Ronald Reagan, whom Obama described as a president that "changed the trajectory of America," was able to make the conservative belief that "government is the problem" the common wisdom in the political debate. With this Healthcare debate won, and if more of these "do something vs. do nothing" debates are won by the "do something" crowd, the narrative that government can come up with solutions might begin to take hold as the common wisdom, changing America's trajectory away from the course that Reagan laid out.

This was a big fucking deal because we took an imperfect, but clear and sure step forward towards declaring that Healthcare is a right and not a "product". The end of this debate coming to this conclusion is a new starting point for dealing with the issue of Healthcare in America; the debates been redefined; the first of many that can, and I believe will be, by the Obama Presidency…