>>5
I actually put more blame on the congress than him. And you're right, in some countries it's really terrible. The checks and balances system here is however slowly being eroded and that chain of events have been happening long before Obama took office.
Both parties (Democrats and Republicans) are just two wings of the same bird. The neo-conservative Republicans are for big government and strong support for corporations, and the neo-liberal Democrats are for the welfare state and big government as well. They're also for the big corporations, but they'll never admit to that.
The biggest reason why nearly every single Republican in congress is against this is because they're just trying to win votes, once they are in power again, we're back to square one, and they'll be spending big like they did before. There's less than ten Republicans in the congress that are actually against the healthcare bill for reasons other than just because they're members of the opposing party (Ron Paul being one of them).
As for Ford, he wasn't really a notable president, except for finally bringing the end to the Vietnam war. Which was started by a Democrat (Lyndon Johnson), and a Republican that failed to end it during his term (Richard Nixon).