In which Obama feels the pain of the price tag he imposed on the ACA

In an interview with Jonathan Chait, President Obama rather casually ticked off his first priority for shoring up the ACA:

In my mind the [Affordable Care Act] has been a huge success, but it’s got real problems. They’re eminently fixable problems in terms of strengthening the marketplace, improving the subsidies so more folks can get it, making sure everybody has Medicaid who was qualified under the original legislation, doing more on the cost containment. But you hit a point where if Congress just is not willing to make any constructive modifications and it’s all political football, then you’re getting a suboptimal solution. 

By now, the imperative to enrich the marketplace subsidies is a matter of consensus among progressive healthcare scholars and officials. Out-of-pocket costs are just too high for prospective enrollees with incomes over 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL)*, the cutoff for strong Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) subsidies, and premium subsidies leave buyers paying too high a percentage of their income -- between 6.4% and 9.7% of income for those in the 200-400% FPL range. In August 2015, Urban Institute scholars Linda Blumberg and John Holahan put out a detailed proposal for subsidy enrichment that included raising the actuarial value of the benchmark plan to 80% from the current 70% , with richer CSR extending further up the income ladder, as well as capping premiums at 8.5% of income for all income levels. Hillary Clinton's rather vague proposal for subsidy enrichment is apparently based on Blumberg and Holahan's. ACA improvement proposals by Timothy Jost and Harold Pollack and Sabrina Corlette and Jack Hoadley also prominently feature subsidy boosts.

The inadequacy of marketplace subsidies was evident to progressives from the beginning. Complaints began when Max Baucus's Senate Finance Committee released its bill in fall 2009, with a subsidy schedule that was far skimpier than that of the House bill.** In his 2011 book about the battle to pass the ACA, Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager from 2008-12 for Health Care for America Now (HCAN), an  umbrella group formed by unions and progressive nonprofits to advocate for universal health care, pins responsibility for the skimpy subsidies primarily on Obama:

Obama, Florida, Hanauer

In an extended interview with Bloomberg editors about America's economic future and role in the global economy, Obama hewed to a simple principle: embrace global trade, but adjust current rules to increase labor's bargaining power while investing in education and skill development. He struck a couple of  notes that recalled things I've read that have resonated with me, about why, where and how wages have to rise. 

First, with respect to manufacturing vs. service jobs:

I think that as we move toward an economy where, because of automation, you need fewer and fewer people to make more and more stuff, more and more of us are going to have to move into the service sector. The service sector historically has been a low-wage sector. And in order for us to make sure that we don’t see this growing divide between haves and have-nots, with a middle class that’s shrinking, we’re going to have to make sure the service sector pays better.

Yes, the U.S. can create some good new advanced manufacturing jobs, in ways that James Fallows has illustrated in his travels around the country for the American Futures project, but the share of those jobs in U.S. employment won't match the totals of yesteryear.  The notion that service jobs are not inherently inferior to manufacturing jobs is one that Richard Florida has been advancing for some time, e.g., in this 2010 essay:

Herman Cain on Libya: "The Spotted or Herbaceous Backson"?

I had deja vu when I listened to this exchange between the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Herman Cain:

Asked if he agrees with the president on Libya, Cain looks up and says, "OK, Libya." He then pauses for a moment.

"President Obama supported the uprising, correct?" he asks, speaking carefully. "President Obama called for the removal of Qaddafi - just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing before I say yes I agree, or no I didn't agree. I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason - nope, that's a different one."

Cain then pauses for about five seconds.

"I gotta go back and see - um, I got all this stuff twirling around in my head," he says. "Specifically, what are you asking me. Did I agree or not disagree with Obama?"

It was the "Specifically, what are you asking me" that triggered the prefiguration. It's in The House at Pooh Corner, Ch. 5, "In Which Rabbit has a Busy Day, and We Learn What Christopher Robin Does in the Mornings."