Absolutely. With every entitlement, their power grows.
This could have been avoided if Dubya had introduced national competition between insurance plans by making individuals eligible to buy from every plan in the nation, thereby destroying every state-based health insurance requirement (i.e. paying for birth control pills, abortions, etc). Instead, he did No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D and so on. Apart from his tax cuts, the guy was positively Nixonian in his embrace of the welfare state, on top of his enthusiasm for helping people with bad credit get home loans. With hyper-expensive COBRA plans slicing through the savings of recently- and long-term-unemployed individuals like a hot knife through butter, I can see why Obamacare could end up helping the Dems win elections for the next decade. The GOP had its chance at market-oriented solutions, and it dropped the ball during its narrow window of opportunity.
Longer term, I think it's not necessarily a bad thing. Things have to get worse before they get better. Upper income people are supporting the Dems because their Federal tax rates were lowered under Bush. When those rates move to 45% because of Obamacare, they'll flock back to the GOP, regardless of their love for gay marriage, gun control, etc.
Ultimately, as we move towards a single-payer system, I suspect defense spending will need to shrink to European levels. We’re still protected by two oceans and bordered by friendly (and weak) neighbors. World events may generate many more exciting headlines as we begin abrogating defense treaties after an initial spasm of hyperactivity. And I think it’s long overdue - the world has been sucking at the teat of American military welfare spending for far too long. It’s time they spend their own money defending themselves from their enemies. Europe wasn’t economically weaker than the US before WWII occurred. Individual countries merely decided that there is no such thing as an enemy - just friends you haven’t met.