In 1935, Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act, which for the first time provided benefits to help Americans through the Great Depression.
In the 1960’s another Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, enacted the Medicare and Medicaid government-funded health care coverage programs for the elderly and poor.
And now, in 2010, a modern president watched from the Roosevelt Room at the white house as the dream of comprehensive health care coverage for all Americans at last reached fruition.
“We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things,” said President Barrack Obama on March 21, following the 219-212 House passage of health care reform. “We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.”
The new law will extend health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and subject the insurance industry to new federal regulation, including a ban on denying patients for pre-existing conditions.
Americans might be forgiven if they think we’ve been here before. The last time the House of Representatives passed health care reform on Nov. 7 it was deemed an historic success, until the Senate passed a completely different version of the bill on Dec. 19.
The difference is, this time the President signed it. This is the result of a somewhat tricky strategy by which the House passed the larger bill, but still requires a Senate vote for the companion piece of “fix-its”, which may or may not go back to the House depending on whether Senate Democrats have the votes to pass the measure unchanged.
“Anybody that thinks that this is only going to be a one-time deal today in the House, I think, is grossly mistaken," said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Republican strategy will be to attempt to add as many amendments as possibly, thereby tying up passage for at least another month. Democrats hope to use the little known process of budgetary reconciliation to pass the bill with only 51 votes, rather than the 60 vote margin generally required to pass legislation. But Republican opposition has been so steadfast, any attempt to circumvent them is bound to make somebody angry.
“By signing this bill, President Obama is abandoning our founding principle that government governs best when it governs closest to the people,” said House Minority Leader, Republican John Boehner. “Never before has such a monumental change to our government been

carried out without the support of both parties. This debate has fostered unprecedented division at a time when this nation needs to come together and address the serious challenges we face.”
Indeed, the process of securing the right to health insurance for all Americans has been so convoluted, it can be difficult to remember that it is worth it. But if every car has insurance, why shouldn’t every body? Now, for the first time, every American with the ability to get sick has the right to do so.
In the meantime, the success of the bill is giving a huge boost to Democrats, and Obama in particular, who staked so much on its passage. Whatever comes of it, the signing is at least a victory of sorts.
“Any time you get something that 14 administrations have talked about or worked on and you get it finished, I think it's a big deal,” said one anonymous Senator. “To put it in the context of here and now: For all the people who wondered if the president's tough enough, I think it's safe to say I don't know another leader who wouldn't have cut a deal or cut and run from the issue months ago.”