Why didn't Dem's do everything they wanted while they had control of the house and senate? Now that they don't?

They know that they must implement there change (turning America into a socialist state controlled by tyrants like Obama) gradually, or the people would rebel. we don't have 1/2 the liberty today that we had when President Reagan was leader.

I don't know if I agree with you on health care reform.

To answer your general question, "Dems" are fairly divided as a party. There are some progressive Democrats who more or less correspond to what the Radical Right loves to stigmatize as "liberals."

There are many Democrats who are fairly liberal on some issues, but somewhat conservative on others.

In 2009, there was a large minority of "blue dog" Democrats who were quite conservative on both social and economic issues, and who in many cases were from swing districts that had previously voted Republicans. They tended to oppose Obama's agenda.

Then there were at least a few Democrats who were recipients of big campaign contributions from corporations, including corporations close to the health care industry, the insurance industry, the Wall Street investment banks, and other special interests.

Some of these corporate-funded, corporate friendly Democrats -- for example, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and "Independent" Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut -- were highly resistant to any kind of health care reform that would unduly threaten the big drug companies, the big health insurance companies or the big HMOs.

In order to get any kind of health care reform passed at all, Obama and the Democratic leadership had to pander to these defenders of the high-priced corporate medicine. What the Democrats enacted into law therefore looked a lot like "Romney Care" as Romney had passed it in Massachussets in 2006, with an individual mandate on everyone to buy private health insurance, and no government efforts to bring down the prices of prescription drugs, and not even a hint of a more efficient "single payer" option.

A similar thing happened with financial reform under the Dodd-Frank bill. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut was highly dependent on campaign money from the financial industry, so was Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, so were many of the freshman Blue Dog Democrats in the House, and what Congress eventually passed was designed to avoid excessive interference in the affairs of the big banks.

Political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, in "Winner Take All Politics," comment that in the symbolism of the old Hollywood westerns, the Republican Party represents the 'black hats" -- the villains -- when it comes to confronting corporate & financial abuses. The GOP will support the wealthy & the corporate economic elite every time.

However, Hacker & Pierson write, the Democratic Party doesn't represent the "white hats" -- the heroes in the old western action flicks. The Democratic Party for the most part consists of "gray hats" -- not as bad as the Republicans, and occasionally wiling to take on corporate power, but unwilling or unable to do so consistently.

For details, see Hacker & Pierson's book. It doesn't specifically describe how the Democrats acted in 2009 and 2010, but it outlines some of the reasons for their disunity.

http://www.amazon.com/Winner-Take-All-Politics-Was...

--- answer from a democratic socialist who reads

EXACTLY. No excuses this time. Van Jones and Ed Rendell on ABC this morning ducking the TRILLION dollar question. No better time in conservative archives to call BS on liberals who want more spending.

"More police, fire, teachers " : Did you forget the stimulus?

"Infrastructure" : Did you forget the stimulus?

Roughly 40% of the annual take, over the last 8 years, in US federal taxation, blown in one bill : The stimulus.

No, the libs cannot justify ANY more spending.

we did what we wanted

we passed a health care

LMAO

They were busy doing things you deny they did.

obongo was maniacally focused on getting a huge new entitlement passed with his name on it.

This is why they are losing and are going to lose 2012