First, I am going to define drift. Drift, according to the unit one class notes, is defined as, “….to not take policy action in response to a social, political, economic change, resulting in policy limbo”. Democrats have provided policy ideas which do little to reduce the total number of Americans who do not have health insurance. The first example of drift I will discuss came during the heat of the 2004 presidential campaign between the Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and President George W Bush. Kerry, instead of addressing the rising number of uninsured, he decided to just target his policy at people who were already insured. His plan would have provided catastrophic illness plans as a supplement to people’s existing employer-based health insurance plans. He chose to ignore the people who had no health insurance to focus on the people that at least had some insurance.
Second, President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care reform law does a meager job of addressing the problem of the rising number of uninsured Americans. Currently, there are 50 million Americans who do not have health insurance. President Obama’s plan would cover 32 million of these Americans. However, this would still leave 23 million Americans without health insurance. Why does a healthcare plan which is supposed to extend healthcare to all Americans leave 23 million Americans out in the cold?
I am amazed me that people keep voting for democrat after democrat, each promising health care reform, but each failing to address the needs of the Americans who have no health insurance. Why do people keep doing this? The only conclusion I can draw is that people are ignorant of the history the Democratic Party actually has when it comes to healthcare.
Connolly, C. (2004). Kerry plan could cut insurance premiums. The Washington Post. Retrieved
from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16748-2004Jun4.html
Mertens, M. (2010). Health care for all leaves 23 million uninsured. National Public Radio.
Retrieved from
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/03/health_care_for_all_minus_23_m.html
Wechsler, P. (2011). Americans without health insurance rise to 52 million on job loss, expense.
Bloomberg. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-16/americans-without-health-insurance-rose-to-52-million-on-job-loss-expense.html
Although I agree with many of your points, I think it’s important to realize that both political parties can easily be accused of drift. For an example, take a look at our current political climate. Just recently Mitch McConnell, the Republican Minority Leader in the Senate, and Harry Reid, the Democrat Majority Leader in the Senate, got into a heated debate on the Senate floor, each blaming the opposing party for stopping any legislation from being passed.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, what we have today is two distinctly different political parties that have such radically different viewpoints which ultimately block almost any potential bill from being passed. The frustrating thing for myself, and I think many other Americans, is that we continue to be in an economic downturn, and our elected officials seem unwilling to compromise on anything.
I recently went to see Lewis Black, a comedian who identifies most generally with the Democratic Party. Referencing the ongoing health care debate, Mr. Black made a good point in saying that if we took away the health care benefits of all members of Congress, they would come up with a plan in about three hours. Although that’s never going to happen, I thought it was a good example of drift and how our politicians, both Democrat and Republican, continue to enact public policies that accomplish very little for the public good.
Of course, Alex, do you expect liberals to vote Republican? Still, while the parties have rather different world views and values--they do seem to agree on certain points that you both raise: ignoring the poor and uninsured who don't have "money that talks," both agree on government as a supporting arm of industry--including deregulation of the financial industry, telecoms, etc....I am not sure compromise is possible --I am not even sure it is desirable but we'll see.
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