Historian Bruce J. Schulman draws on the past:
The architects of the most important social legislation in U.S. history, the Social Security Act of 1935, felt the same ambivalence abut their handiwork — and the same letdown about the final product. But Social Security became the bulwark of American social policy — the foundation of the social safety net to this day. It also proved a political boon for its creators, winning Democrats votes and elections for two generations. Health care reform, however attenuated and compromised, has similar potential.
The Dish 