To the Editor:

A

s someone who has been trapped on the Obamacare exchanges for the past few years without qualifying for any of the subsidies, I read Tevi Troy’s expert documentation of its many failings with great interest (“Cleaning Up Obama’s Health-Care Mess,” November).  His closing paragraph tying our health-care crisis to America’s “unsustainable debt of $19 trillion and counting” really drove home the immense challenges facing the 45th president.

Mr. Troy did include one note of optimism amid the wreckage when he wondered whether the Obamacare “disaster cemented an already extant sense in the American consciousness that government is just not capable of taking on and solving the complex problems of 21st-century America.” His conclusion: “To the extent that future presidents come up against a wave of skepticism regarding ambitious plans for new government initiatives, the Obamacare rollout will bear much of the blame.” Would that it were so.

Unfortunately, my left-leaning family and friends are undaunted by Obamacare’s failings, as none have any direct experience with the program.  I suspect the myriad failures and general disillusionment among the populace won’t stop an ambitious big-government project when Democrats inevitably regain power in the decade ahead.  After all, Obamacare was unpopular when it got shoved down our throats through a purely partisan vote (the first strictly partisan major legislation since Reconstruction)—and the Democrats seem not to have learned any lessons from it.

Repeal and replace is coming, and it’s already drawing howls from the left.  I hope that the new administration will consult and incorporate the best ideas the Democrats might still have, and get a decent number of their votes, in order to create some bipartisan consensus as we move forward. The one-party vote of Obamacare massively weakened its long-term sustainability.

I understand much of Commentary’s principled opposition to Trump’s candidacy, but given the bleak situation the status quo has produced, maybe shaking up the system was this country’s only opportunity to avoid perdition.  Trump is an imperfect vehicle, but at least provides a chance for a new approach, while Secretary Clinton seemed to promise only more of the same: vetoing every necessary health-care reform while continuing to ignore the looming debt crisis.
John Ennis
Brooklyn, New York

Tevi Troy writes:

I

am sorry that John Ennis’s “left-leaning family and friends” remain unconvinced of liberalism’s shortcomings, and I admire his efforts to show them the light.  With respect to my note of optimism, I don’t think I am being unrealistic in saying that the ACA debacle contributed to a sense that government was not working and not equipped to take on big challenges in the future. The 2016 election results bear out my assertion. As for the Trump presidency, I assume that the good editors of Commentary will do as they always do and praise what is praiseworthy while criticizing what merits criticism. I plan to do the same as long as they continue to give me the honor of appearing in their pages.