The failure of careful deliberation before passing Obamacare

Michael Barone:

Many Democrats are genuinely puzzled about Republicans' continuing opposition to Obamacare. It is the law of the land, these Democrats say. Critics should accept it, as critics accepted Medicare.

They should work constructively and across the aisle with Democrats to repair any flaws and make the law work to help people.

Historical analogies are often useful but can be misleading. Certainly so in this case: Republicans, like it or not, are behaving differently from the way they behaved after the passage of Medicare in 1965.

To understand why there is continued resistance to Obamacare, and why majorities of voters continue to oppose it in polls, a different historical analogy is helpful.

It is an example of a law that was bitterly opposed but that was accepted by opponents to a much greater extent than even many of its advocates expected: the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The most controversial provision of the law was Title II, prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations — hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters. This overturned Southern state laws requiring racial segregation in such facilities.
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The law actually freed businesses to increase their commerce and that is one of the reasons it was so successful.   My uncle who owned several motels in Alabama had to expand one of them more than three fold to handle all the new business.

Obamacare is having the opposite effect with businesses and providers.  Whereas the Civil Rights Act was passed with broad bipartisan support there was an utter failure of Democrats to work with Republican ideas to make the health care law more effective.  Is was jammed through without careful consideration and has be a fiasco from beginning to its hopeful end.