Parts One and Two: https://caucus99percent.com/content/who-will-own-lack-good-national-heal... and https://caucus99percent.com/content/who-will-own-lack-good-national-heal...

In 2009, Democrats told a lie that they are resurrecting now that Obamacare is imploding (as they knew it would)--the lie that Democrats passed Obamacare in the sincere belief that future Congresses and Presidents would expand/improve Obamacare from time to time, as happened with Social Security. Um, what?

Traditional Democrats had had plenty of time, power and inclination to expand Social Security, as well as moderate, if not downright liberal, Republicans who joined them in coalitions to pass things like New Deal and Civil Rights legislation. Tax rates were high. The nation was less bitterly divided and so much more. New Democrats have none of the things that would have given sane people a basis for a good faith belief that Obamacare would be expanded over time.

Inclination? The DLC, which spawned the New Democrats (re-branded conservative Democrats?), recommended appointing commissions to determine whether various programs were no longer needed. That, however, was code for using commissions to get at least fig leaf cover for ending New Deal and Great Society programs. While Clinton and Obama both formed such commissions, the commissions apparently did not provide enough cover. Additionally, Clinton may have been more distracted and less "compartmentalized" than he will ever admit. In any event, Clinton, Obama and their respective Congresses cut "only" programs like welfare, SNAP and fuel subsidies. In Obama's case, this was while foreclosures, job losses, unemployment, underemployment, etc. were at crisis highs, but prices of heating fuel and food were certainly not at Great Depression lows.

Time and power? Beginning with FDR's first term, Democrats held the White House for twenty consecutive years. That, however, eroded and ultimately ended as the "Solid South" turned from solidly Democratic to solidly Republican. The electoral college map speaks volumes about the challenge Democratic Presidential hopefuls have faced since at least 1968. Democratic domination of Congress, which also began with FDR's first term, finally ended in 1995, after the first mid-term election of America's first New Democrat President. (New Deal Democrats vs. New Democrats: Do the math.) Need I mention that not a single Republican voted for Obamacare, so there was absolutely no realistic hope for anything like the New Deal Coalition?

Obama and his first Congress were elected during a perfect storm of (1) people waking up to having been lied into forever war by Bushco; (2) the thought of Not Ready for Prime Time Sarah Palin's being an older man's heartbeat away from the Presidency; and (3) the horrific economic collapse of 2008 (including McCain's bizarre reaction to it). There was also establishment media's love/lust affair with Obama: Media had begun selling him the instant that he finished his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech. Finally, Obama was certainly an appealing candidate with several geniuses on his team.

Given history, anyone who believed, circa 2009, that we would again see sixty Senators in a Democratic Caucus while a Democratic President was in the Oval Office in the foreseeable future was delusional. Any Democrats who expected not only another perfect storm, but sixty or more Senators and a President more liberal than those who denied us even a strong public option were downright certifiable. Heck, they're the ones who treat liberal politicians like flesh-eating bacteria. Using the unique window of opportunity of 2009-10 to enact a health plan known to be inadequate and unsustainable was utterly unconscionable. Telling a buck-passing lie about it in hopes of lulling the perennially-eager-to-be-lulled left was contemptible.

Another of the many excuses cited for Obamacare were the attacks on Billarycare by the health insurance industry. The implication: If any of us wanted a Democratic Congress finally to pass any kind of national health plan at all, we'd best eat our peas and pay our dollars to placate the health insurance industry that had for years been bankrupting American families and trying to deny them care. Democrats were not going to risk angering lobbyists just to benefit America and Americans. This excuse can be found in the dictionary under "corruption," among other words.

That karma required these same lying Democrats to pretend, in subsequent midterms, that they'd never heard of Obama, let alone of Obamacare, is only cold, cold comfort. As for Republicans, who did nothing at all for decades, then tried to repeal the only health plan Americans finally did get, I have two words. They are not "Thank you." I have the same two words for the arses who think it matters whether it's Republicans or Democrats who will "own" screwing Americans on health care.

Who does own this debacle? The entire PIC (Political Industrial Complex), including Republican and Democratic politicians and all their support systems and enablers--the DNC and RNC, strategists, think tanks, etc. Also, establishment media that consistently fails to call out the PIC for its massive failures, dishonesty and corruption, but instead serves as propagandists and sycophants. Yes, of course, I also blame insurers, Big PHRMA and Big Medical Providers who lobbied the White House hard. But, the legal duty of corporations is maximizing profits for stockholders. The alleged public servants involved, however, were legally, morally and ethically obligated to be working for us, but instead benefited their personal benefactors. PSMA ("Public servants, my ass.)

Throughout every turn described in this series, every federal political officeholder had excellent health insurance, along with a good salary and many other benefits, courtesy of the taxpayer, while the taxpayer went without. Again, PSMA, Apparently, the words "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" aren't the most terrifying in the English language if you are the one getting paid, pampered and pandered to via tax dollars. Oh, and, if you are from the government and you are not here to help, why in hell are you here and why have we been paying for you and your staff?