Biden gets some props for shepherding and wrangling Obamacare into existence, perhaps shaping the sharp edges in it republicans have since used to emasculate themselves. He gets props for moving Obama on gay marriage which has seriously changed the world.
Er, that's all ye got?
The process of getting Obamacare through was a huge mess, with public horse trading, blackmail by a few conservative Dems, and concessions to moderate GOPers who were never going to get on board. I guess if Biden helped get it to the finish line, that's commendable. But wow, was that an ugly process and made the Dems look weak and disorganized.
And the O Admin was really a bystander while gay marriage rights took hold in the states and courts, while they stayed on the sideline.
Teddy Roosevelt couldn’t get healthcare
FDR traded healthcare for social security and then excluded categories of beneficiaries that were primarily black
Truman gave it a shot and then gave up
JFK/LBJ got Medicare through as a compromise and even then Republicans and the AMA swore it would lead to godless communism.
Clinton... well.
BushIi sold Part D as helping seniors but the tiered system of coverage was a gift to pharmaceutical companies.
Obama/ Biden got a badly damaged ACA through and in essence did what TR, FDR, JFK, LBJ couldn’t.
Then ‘disappointed’ progressives stayed their asses home in 2010 and put the GOP back in charge of the House.
After doing his level best to gut Obamacare Evan Bayh left the Democratic Senate and went to work for the US Chamber of Commerce that spent $3 million a week against ACA throughout the summer and fall of 2009.
After five years with USCC he ran again for Senate in Indiana. The Indiana Chamber and the USCC
went at him hammer and tongs and backed Todd Young who is the Senator from Indiana (R).
I guess Obama should have used his Green Lantern ring of power and simply willed his agenda through the Republicans and white America who woke up in July 2009 to the fact Obama was really black.
Or, as Gabby Johnson would say, “The President is a N—-(Church Bell).