But, yeah, it's totally on him for not getting the GOP to work with him.
On healthcare: what bipartisan policy could he have proposed that would have gotten GOP votes? After throwing the left-wing desire for a public option out the window, they bill they passed was based almost entirely on conservative ideas:
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/i...rdable_ca.html
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The idea of an individual mandate was popularized by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative think tanks as early as 1989. Today, Heritage cites differences between their idea and the Obama version. Yet the basic principles are the same.
In 1992, Heritage proposed a sweeping reform it called the Heritage Consumer Choice Health Plan. Among the plan’s features:
“Require all households to purchase at least a basic package of insurance, unless they are covered by Medicaid, Medicare, or other government health programs. The private insurance market would be reformed to make a standard basic package available to all at an acceptable price.”
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That's the oh so controversial individual mandate. A Heritage Foundation idea to drive more people into the private insurance market.
Quote:
As President Bill Clinton began to push for a government-run system in 1993, Republicans introduced bills that included an individual mandate. At the time, Newt Gingrich hailed them:
“I am for people, individuals — exactly like automobile insurance — individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance,” he told “Meet the Press” in 1993. “And I’m prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals, on a sliding scale, a government subsidy, to ensure that everyone as individuals has health insurance.”
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Quote:
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As late as 2007, Democrats and Republicans introduced a bipartisan bill that included an individual mandate — still seen as an essentially conservative idea. Gingrich in 2007 argued that “citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance, particularly when they can afford it, and expect others to pay for their care when they need it.”
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Wait, if individual mandate was the GOP alternative to government-run healthcare, why would they decry it as socialism when Obama was president? Couldn't be really cynical politicking could it?
Oh, and some Republican Governor passed a version of it (developed with the same experts who later developed the ACA) in his state, hailing it as a "model for the nation":
But, please tell me again how the president is the one not holding up his end of "bipartisanship."