Saturday, February 17, 2018

The DEMs Could Have Done That?

The Hill: Trump, the DEMs could have passed gun control
Wiki 111th Congress

Now I know that Obama and Congress spent much of their majority years on ACA and Financial regulations.  However I have often wondered why they did not do more on gun control, immigration, etc when they were in control?

I understand why they would not want to raise taxes given that the country was in the midst of a economic disaster....  But the other normally DEM hot button issues seemed pretty low priority at that time.

That was in my pre-blogging phase, so I really did not watch politics very closely.  Thoughts?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We didn’t have the votes. But do Democrats bear part of the responsibility for the slaughter of innocents? Yes, we do. We should have done more, to our shame.

—Hiram

Sean said...

What Hiram said. The outrage about Obama's liberalness was overdone. He was exceedingly cautious and submarined his own party's priorities to try and earn Republican support. The stimulus and the ACA are both reflections of that, and the compromise and moderation reflected in them (as well as all the issues that weren't addressed) made them less effective in the long run.

John said...

Sean,
I wonder about that... I mean the DEMs got whacked pretty good in 2010 because many thought they had gone too far.

Personally I think Obama should have skipped the whole ACA thing and focused on other more important Liberal priorities like guns, DACA, etc. I think Obama had his healthcare legacy in mind, not the friendship of the GOP.

Laurie said...

about "other more important Liberal priorities" I think giving 20 million people access to healthcare was the biggest dem priority and as J Biden said a big fucking deal.

John said...

The 20 Million seems a bit suspect

KFF Key Facts

Maybe they just could have expanded Medicaid and avoided the negative election consequences of passing an insurance mandate.

Sean said...

"I mean the DEMs got whacked pretty good in 2010 because many thought they had gone too far."

Well, sure, that was the perception. That doesn't mean it was the reality. Look, for instance, at the high percentage of Republicans who though Obama was a Muslim or born outside of the United States.

John said...

Possibly... Or a bunch of people did not like the Federal government which insurance they had to buy? We will never know, however both seem possible.