It comes up for renewal all the time, he easily could've vetoed it.

Obama had the political capital from 2008-2010 and didn't use it because he cares about "norms" and "working with the other side" rather than engaging in legislating from the oval office like his successor.

The real lesson is that obama should have expanded executive power even more and done anything he could (including norm breaking) to executive order away as much of the patriot act and guantanamo as the courts would give him.

Obama and the democrats together only had the political opportunity to squeeze a fraction of his healthcare vision, after which it has since been withering away. The fact that presidents are very expected to be re-elected, but not this time, implies that American voters want a return to norms.

To be honest, Obamacare is a slap in the face to poor people.

The 30 hour mandate crushed hourly wage earners ability to work a 40 hour week at one employer

can you explain a bit? I thought this was a reasonable attempt at changing the status quo of the US health care system.

The cost of health insurance has gone up tremendously in the past decade. It's unaffordable to low income families, even the cheapest plan, which still typically requires you spend $10k+ a year out of pocket before insurance covers anything. Additionally, Obama added penalties for not having health insurance (that Trump thankfully stopped, the only good thing he's done I can think of) that financially cripple these families.

All you really need to look at is whether the insurance companies liked obamacare: they loved it. Because it was a great deal for them and at the expense of everyone else.

It did nothing to lower costs. It did raise the age limit to stay on your parent's plan, disallowed pre-existing conditions exclusions, and made contraception more accessible though. Those could have been passed separately without trying (and failing) to overhaul the entire industry, which ultimately contributed to the ridiculous pricing we see today.

> Obama added penalties for not having health insurance

Which were easily waived during your tax return process by showing you were below X income line.

I was making $27K a year at my previous job and couldn't afford health insurance. All I had to do was check off that I couldn't afford it in turbo tax which then verified I was below the cutoff line and the fees were waived.

That was for the first year. After that you got charged. Trump did an executive order that discontinued that.

No, my penalties were waived more than one year.