[This comment was posted in response to a liberal friend’s observation that Obamacare is actually helping some people. It’s a reasonable point, but I still felt compelled to remind my friend of the precarious moment that America is in.]
I have very mixed feelings on the ACA/Obamacare. Like this presidency in general, I think the law represents a missed opportunity of historic proportions. However, I’m sure it will do some good, as I know it already has (and I believe it provides a GOOD skeleton for future enhancements). On the flip side, I just read Steven Brill’s excellent piece in Time, “Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” and found a pretty convincing argument that Obama’s signature law does virtually nothing to rein in skyrocketing (and gougingly inflated) healthcare costs. The sad truth is that corporate rule has replaced democracy and the .1% writes the bills and decides which laws will be enforced (I think Glenn Greenwald’s “Liberty and justice FOR SOME” thesis is spot-on). No matter how much I’m inclined to sympathize with this president, the degradation of the rule of law in recent years has been breathtaking, with Obama leading the charge to continue his predecessor’s shocking radicalism (rendition through secrecy through wiretapping through due-process free executions of citizens). Without a dramatic course-correction, Bush-Obama will be remembered as the fatal ONE-TWO punch to constitutional governance and what was once known as American greatness (the middle class is evaporating as I type these words thanks to Bush, Obama, and Wall Street).