When we get to do 2009 over again...

When we get to do 2009 over again I would strongly suggest that the Healthcare Reform effort be presented primarily as deficit reducing entitlement reform... which it WAS.

Should we have known this back then? Yes. Because of Octomom.

Human beings are into fertility. (Presumably all the human groups that were unimpressed by fertility were out-competed long ago, for obvious reasons.)

Half this country worships fetuses. We have a history of sitcoms about freakishly large families. We have reality shows about people who have 19 children, or are able to produce six children at a time.

In any normal year Octomom would have been a national hero.

But the economy had just collapsed. This changes people. Octomom, who should have symbolized hope in our ongoing effort to out breed all competition, was seen as a threat... gratuitous mouths to feed.

The psychology of scarcity.

The nation was in no mood to care how many millions of people were without health coverage.

Since the HCR plan actually does reform some entitlements a little and actually does reduce our systemic deficit/debt it should have been marketed on those terms, given the tenor of the times.

(To my knowledge, it is the only long-term deficit reducing legislation passed since 2000.)

reducing the deficit bit

I follow. Voters who weren't aware of the deficit-reduction effect of the HCR weren't paying attention - a pretty commonplace thing.

was all about reducing the deficit.

edit to add - From July 2009:

Obama: Health Care Reform Tied to Controlling Deficit

The White House has released excerpts of President Obama's opening statement at tonight's primetime press conference. Not surprisingly, Mr. Obama will focus his statement, expected to be about seven or eight minutes, on his push for health care reform.

To use a basketball analogy, Mr. Obama has been on a full-court press this week to rally the public around health care reform. In a series of speeches and television interviews, the president has made many of the arguments he will make this evening before. But tonight Mr. Obama seeks to reach a larger audience in primetime.

He will start with his rationale behind the push for reform, according to the excerpts.

"This is not just about the 47 million Americans who have no health insurance," he plans to say. "Reform is about every American who has ever feared that they may lose their coverage if they become too sick, or lose their job, or change their job. It's about every small business that has been forced to lay off employees or cut back on their coverage because it became too expensive."

Mr. Obama also ties the fight to the battles to fix the economy and control the deficit.
"I've said that even as we rescue this economy from a full-blown crisis, we must rebuild it stronger than before. And health insurance reform is central to that effort," he plans to say.
And on the deficit, he will say the following: "So let me be clear: if we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit."

Mr. Obama adds this statement on to his often-stated pledge not to raise the deficit due to health care reform: "I have also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade – and I mean it."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-5181110-503544.html

I don't know if anyone noticed but the Debt Commission accepted HCR as a way to lower the deficit and actually calls for a Public Option to be added.

I like babies. Most people like babies. Babies are cute. Being anti-baby is political suicide. The past is past 2009 cannot be done over and arguing that adding 40 million people to insurance redcues costs makes little sense. The issue is one of fairness and what a country with our resources can provide.