The failure of "bi-partisanship".

[kentuck]

Last edited Fri Dec 16, 2016, 03:13 PM - Edit history (1)

From his very first day in office until the last, President Obama has tried to work with Republicans in a "bi-partisan" way. But, what about Obamacare, you ask? That is why he didn't go for a public option or a single payer. Because he knew Republicans would not support it. With Obamacare, he had a few Republicans on board at first, but they gradually dropped off from Tea Party pressure.

Then, in the last few months, with the news that Russia was hacking our political system, President Obama called a meeting with top Republicans and Democrats to figure out a way to tell the American people what was going on. But, once again, Mitch McConnell balked. If the President wanted to come forward with the news, he was on his own. He would not have "bi-partisan" support. He would not have the credibility he needed in such a heated political environment.

At every turn, "bi-partisanship" has failed to work. Now we find ourselves threatened by an outside force and they still cannot come together for the good of the nation. Why shouldn't people be concerned and fearful for the future? There is no reason to believe that Republicans will do anything to upset their power structure or the madman that will soon occupy the White House.

[MichMary]

1. Wrong

From his very first day in office until the last, President Obama has tried to work with Republicans in a "bi-partisan" way. But, what about Obamacare, your ask? That is why he didn't go for a public option or a single payer. Because he knew Republicans would not support it. With Obamacare, he had a few Republicans on board at first, but they gradually dropped off from Tea Party pressure.

President Obama had to drop the public option and single payer to get all the conserva-Dems on board. There was a large enough contingency of them who would have deep-sixed the whole thing if they had to support single payer/public option. Even without either of those two things he had to make serious concessions in order to get all the Dems to support it.

The fact is that there was no need to make any concessions to the Rs. We had a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and a sizable majority in the House. If the Dems had been able to agree on things, we could have had anything we wanted.

[kentuck]

2. We had a 60 vote majority in the Senate only for a short while.

There were two or three Republicans, including Chuck Grassley, that had indicated they might support the ACA, but they eventually withdrew support as the Tea Party grew in momentum.