The more I think about it, the more I think the recovery was botched from the outset by the Democrats. GOP was going to stand in the way no matter what agenda. Democrats chose to make the agenda healthcare. They could have chose to make it tax policy or inequality (two of the underlying causes of our lingering terrible economy). Health care would have flowed naturally from a growing economy and shrinking inequality (our system of health delivery worked a lot better when the middle class had great benefits, something not possible in a minimum wage driven economy). In the end, they either didn't see or completely missed a grand opportunity to fix some fundamentals. The cynical part of me thinks it was observed and ignored for reasons of campaign contribution.