One-off fixes take the loudest voices for reform off the table, since they already got theirs.
Breast cancer - with its mandatory insurance coverage for reconstructive surgery leaves others with disfigurement paying for it out of pocket (I've got a very visible scar that started out at 5" across and 1/2" deep on my forearm. Because my forearm isn't my breast - I can live with it - or pay out of pocket to have cosmetic surgery. And the big lobby for breast cancer certainly isn't rocking the boat because their cosmetic surgery is already covered - and my second cancer is one of the most disfiguring and only represents about 2% of all cancers. Not a very loud voice. (My first cancer is breast cancer, so I know both sides of this story)
$35 cap on insulin per month. Again - lots of people with diabetes, a couple of very vocal advocacy groups who are now silent on the cost of other expensive drugs like those my daughter takes. Her health care is billed at $200,000/year - most of that for drugs. But there are only about 30,000 folks with her disease in the US. Again - not much clout.
As for tips and overtime - there are a lot of minimum wage folks who don't benefit from either change. Tipped employees already have ways to hide income from the IRS. (My sister is still working AND cleaning house on the side because she never reported her tips to the IRS - so she can't afford to retire because her SS income will be so low; I also did taxes for a number of years and not a single person ever reported tips to me to include on their returns . . . except for my daughter because I made her.) Minimum wage jobs are also infamous for keeping people below the number of hours at which they have to pay benefits. Lots cheaper to have a bunch of part time workers - no benefits, no overtime.
Not to mention eliminating tax on tips just perpetuates a system we ought to be getting rid of. Employers should be paying traditionally tipped workers an appropriate wage and including the cost of that wage in the cost of the food - just as they do the cost of their rent, ingredients, tools and equipment, etc.
So no, I don't think Democrats should have done these things. I think they make the system less fair, rather than more. Keep all the struggling folks fighting for scraps amongst ourselves, rather than uniting our voices for a system that is fairer for all.
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