My parents and I often get into very long discussions about different topics. A popular one recently has been Obama's push for health care reform.
My dad said he read in the paper yesterday that after using 'reconciliation' to get the bill passed in the Senate Obama is now planning to not send the revised bill back through the House. It's all possible because of some House rule.
My dad brought up a really interesting concern about the implications of such a forced approach to lawmaking. He said that if the bill passes and then (by some miracle) healthcare tanks, everyone is going to come back to this instance, where there was some question about the legitimacy of whether the bill passed or not.
If that did happen, if healthcare was passed on such a slim margin, what effect would it have on the government if things don't work out? Could it possibly hurt the credibility of our government?
This is obviously worst case senario stuff, but I think its worth thinking about.
Slim margins and compromise are really the things that make up American politics. I don't know how much credibility our government would lose, as the situation can be seen as parallel to the first term election of President Bush. We still hold the electoral college and government as valid, despite the fact that no matter how you look at--he did not win the popular vote.
ReplyDeleteBut it still is important for the congressmen to consider as their personal credibility for candidacy for reelection will be up for half of them this year...