Did voters accept a law without proper consent? It’s hypocritical of a healthcare law to lack informed consent?
Please respond to the below post to a classmate. (Between 250-350 words and 1-3 references) Original thoughts. nothing fancy, this is easy money. The purpose is to give feedback, see the attached document for the sample response.
What is politics? From the Greek word “politicos” meaning “of, for or relating to citizens” is the process of making uniform decisions applying to all members of a group. Then we may ask the question what is the end goal of politics? That is to say, what is its purpose, what are its objectives?
Some say that politics don’t have a moral end goal but its task is to achieve a successful outcome for its member. Such a statement affirms two theses:
- Politics only aim is to achieve a successful outcome
- This also excludes a moral process along the way
Does the passage of the affordable care act mirror the above thesis? James Bovary (Bovary, 2014) in his opinion piece explains the systemic deceit at the highest level of the government to aid in the passage of the Affordable Care Act. He made the case that the administration slippery assertions that were reported as “hard evidence” should have been portrayed as a political spin. As proof is the fact that the bill promised that people would be allowed to keep their doctor and health plans just to be followed by millions of cancellations later by the insurance company. The promise that the bill will cut the number of uninsured and no one will be denied health coverage tapped into the moral and social benefits of the law that made it hard to be argued against.
Reviewing the past promotions of the law, it only highlights its major benefits. Had the law upcoming fallout been explained or exposed, many would not have favored the personal shortfall of the law. None would have cared about its social benefit in decreasing the uninsured rates.
Did voters accept a law without proper consent? It’s hypocritical of a healthcare law to lack informed consent?
Was the end a success? It is debatable, this healthcare law has many policies issues. The political exploitation of the law relies not by what the voters don’t know, it’s what they know that that is not so is the culprit of leadership misguidance. Schoolchild in her article says it best that politicians’ incentives are asymmetrical in that it encouraged people to stay misinformed and politically active which is often easier and produces larger pay-offs compared to encouraging them to obtain correct factual knowledge or persuading the disengaged to use their existing knowledge in the public arena (Schoolchild & Einstein, 2015). The combination of politicians’ incentives, misinformation, and political activity in accord with that misinformation can lead to irresponsible governance and bad policies, with potentially devastating consequences which is so far the outcome of the Affordable Care Act.
Cohen a fellow at Century Foundation states this “…accuse Obama of lying about health-care reform — but understand the simple underlying reality: we can’t handle the truth.” (Cohen, 2013). In summary he says that it’s important to keep in mind that Obama was–to a large degree telling Americans what they wanted to hear. In fact, he was giving them the type of comforting assurances they insist upon getting before backing any major policy change from Washington.
The creation of Social Security is a great example of such lies aIDed to the social condition of the time which favored its passage. During this era of mass unemployment, a major justification of its creation was to encourage older workers to leave the labor force. Commissioner Stanford Ross conceded in 1979 that “the mythology of Social Security contributed greatly to its success … Strictly speaking, the system was never intended to return to individuals what they paid.” When the feds default on Social Security payments promised to current and future generations, citizens will learn too late that 10,000 political promises are worth less than one wooden nickel. (Bushwhacker, 1981) (Bovary, 2014).
We live in a society where we can’t afford errors on a mass scale. Pragmatism policy emphasizes the practical application of ideas by acting on them to actually test them in human experiences. This philosophical policy making is currently being implemented in the military where introduction of women in special elite force is warranted. The concerns are multiple but the pressing one is will they be able to carry a wounded fellow combatant or would they become a liability for a navy seal team for example.
Bibliography
Bovary, J. (2014, November 12). The Obamacare deception of ‘stupid’ Americans. Retrieved from The Washington Times: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/12/james-bovard-the-obamacare-deception-of-stupid-ame/
Bushwhacker, R. V. (1981). Reviewed Work: Policy making for Social Security by Martha Der thick. The Journal of Human Resources, 16(1), 157-160. dpi:10.2307/145227
Cohen, M. (2013, October 10). Behind Obama’s lie, our own immaturity. Retrieved from New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/behind-obama-lie-immaturity-article-1.1511360
Schoolchild, J., & Einstein, K. L. (2015, July). ‘It isn’t what we don’t know that gives us trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so’: misinformation and democratic politics. British Journal of Political Science, 45(3), 467-475. dpi:10.1017/S000712341400043X
