During the last Democratic debate we heard more details on the candidates plans for our nation’s healthcare. Bernie Sanders wants to move us to a single payer system, similar to most of the modern world, while Hillary Clinton wants to “fix” Obamacare. While I do strongly support Sanders plan, I would easily live with Clinton’s if that was the case, but can that happen?
Rewind to 2010. The Democrats pass the Affordable Care Act and President Obama signs it into law. It has been hailed as one of the most historic pieces of legislation, and I can’t disagree with that. But it also came with a caveat, in that it still needed “fixes”. Don’t worry though, the Democrats were on the job! Well, until that November, when the Democrats suffered a huge defeat in the House and lost control. After that “fixing” Obamacare became a pipe dream, as the focus of the House would now switch to actually repealing it.
Then we hit that debate this month. Instantly the online fight over the two plans erupted. I’ve even been in a few of them. Do I think Sanders plan can get through Congress? No, not really. But it’s an ambitious plan and one that most Democrats have pushed for over the years, including the top Democrat in the House, Nancy Pelosi. Clinton, on the other hand, has dismissed Sanders plan as a “dream” and saying instead she would “fix” the current law. And with that we started seeing the argument devolve into “Hillary is the realist, while Sanders is pushing dreams” meme erupt.
Clinton is the realist? How can they justify that with what the facts have been over the past 5 years; a Republican controlled Congress, hell bent on repealing the law?
As I said earlier, this has been eating at me since that debate. I even touched on it in a post last week. But the Clinton supporters are still pushing this defense, and now they have added a new tool to the arsenal, in the form of a Washington Post article:
How impossible is it for Democrats to win back the House? This impossible.
The article sites the Cook political report and has been circulating social media, accompanied with the map at the top of this post.And I don’t think anyone is arguing that it is near impossible, though some very smart strategists have seen a very small path to victory.
But again, we’re seeing the Clinton supporters pushing a message of “nope” instead of “hope”. Funny how they strive to continue what Obama has done, yet keep dismissing his underlying campaign premise.
And if they are these “realists”, as opposed to the crazy thinkers on the Sanders’ side, and they also believe that there is no way the Democrats will win back the House, then how in the world can they also think Hillary has a better chance at getting her healthcare fixes through Congress? They are literally saying that Hillary will get the Republicans, who have voted over 60 times to repeal the law with no chance of it passing a veto pen, will suddenly say “yeah, let’s fix this?”
So either the Clinton supporters have a funny definition of being a “realist”, or they are throwing that term around as a subtle jab towards Bernie supporters. Either way, the facts they are using to support their candidate are in direct opposition to their claim of being realists.