However, amid Obama’s media tour unveiling his new $850 million presidential center, documents obtained by Zeteo and the Lever through an open records request show Obama as president scoffing at demands that he more forcefully navigate those same barriers on health care policy, when he and his party controlled the White House and large majorities in Congress.
The documents also show Obama’s staff cheering him on after he rebuffed a supporter who was disappointed by the president’s surrender on his promise to enact a public health insurance option — a proposal that conservative Democrats continue to tout today as an alternative to Medicare for All.
They had 72 days of a filibuster-proof supermajority. They would still have a majority in both chambers until the mid-term elections in 2010 when Republicans took majority in the House but Democrats still had the majority in the Senate. But sure, they didn’t have majorities in congress and they certainly didn’t have a majority so big you couldn’t filibuster it for two and half months.