First Health Care Reform, Now Let's Restructure a Broken Federal Government

Published: Mon 26 Apr 2010

Mary Banks

In March, President Obama signed into law a watered-down, co-opted version of his socialist health care scheme that lacked many of the components liberals claimed would save the allegedly broken health care system in the United States. Because of vehement Republican and public opposition, the bill became a compromised, impotent iteration of its original form.

Still, most viewed it as a major political victory for Obama and congressional Democrats. Perhaps Joe Biden summarized the sentiments of the left best when he spoke what he thought was a clandestine whisper to the president at the health care legislation signing ceremony: "This is a big f*cking deal."

Indeed, Vice President Biden, it is a big deal and a political victory of sorts for your party. But will health care reform prove to be a historic victory for the American people? Because of our broken, ineffective, deadlocked two-party system, the answer is probably a resounding "no." As with any political victory, health care reform will prove to be a pyrrhic victory at best unless we fix the system that has failed us so many times.

Partisan Bickering

A plague of hypocrisy, political myopia, and intransigence has spread across both sides of the aisle. Members of both parties will only support a cause for as long as it is politically expedient, after which they either flip-flop on their stance or abandon the cause altogether. The result is a remarkably disingenuous display of hypocrisy from the men and women who are supposed to be our national leaders and civic exemplars.

For example, once the housing bubble burst, Obama inveighed against the corruption and greed at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during his campaign. But guess who was the third-highest recipient of contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 1989-2008? None other than Senator Barack Obama.

It's not as if the other side is innocent either. The latest and most despicable show of uncooperative political enmity comes from the Republicans' newly changed stance on the coverage mandate in the health care reform law. Ironically, the idea of a health insurance mandate was originally a Republican idea, introduced in the 1990s. That is the same idea that they now oppose, apparently for no other reason than the other side supports it. Our two parties are looking more and more like warring, puerile siblings than visionary nation-changers.

Jaded, Bipolar American Public

Perhaps the most devastating consequence of a broken and gridlocked political system is the effect it has on the American people's trust in their politicians. A new poll by the Pew Research Center indicates that 80 percent of Americans do not trust the government. Given all of the partisan squabbling and undelivered promises coming from Washington, that statistic is altogether unsurprising.

But if the American people truly want to reform the current system of government, they are going to have to part with their somewhat bipolar political beliefs. For instance, most Americans loathe the idea of a burgeoning federal deficit, but by and large, they support the entitlement programs that create it, such as relief for the unemployed and mortgage-payment assistance. Americans can't realistically rely on a government they distrust to deliver the programs they expect that depend on the taxes they don't want to pay. For government reform to happen, America, we have to make up our minds once and for all.