Elliot Golan
A government divided cannot effectively legislate.
So came to pass the so-called healthcare overhaul that Congress passed this month. The House approved the bill with a 219-212 vote and the Senate tally was 56-43.
The important statistic to note is that zero Republicans approved of the bill in either.
Regardless of whether a citizen is liberal or conservative, this level of bipartisanship is crippling. Having one entire side of the political spectrum opposed to what is undoubtedly one of the largest pieces of legislation in the last fifty years, arguably in the history of the union, is unacceptable.
This entirely polar voting has already begun to pay poor dividends.
Within minutes of President Barack Obama signing the bill, more than a dozen states began questioning the bill’s legality. More than question, lawsuits were filed. These states believe that the portion of the bill that mandates citizens to obtain insurance is unconstitutional.
Since most aspects of the bill do not take affect for several years, the fight is just beginning.
We can expect the entirety of that time to be spent with constant battling, regular heated debates and countless attempts at defeating the overhaul.
So what is the point?
Though the bill was passed in accordance with all the rules and regulations any other proposition goes through, the method with which it was approved goes against all that this country stands for.
Checks and balances and representative measures guaranteed within the Constitution do not accurately convey the opinion of the people, and therefore cannot actually speak to their desires.
This country is not united politically. It has not been since the Revolutionary War. And even then, there were bastions of people that would have preferred to remain loyal to England.
However, our separation is growing at a frantic pace. Bills like this only speed up the process.
The Great Compromise that resulted in the forming of the two different houses of Congress was made in order to ensure equal representation for all states. Due to our unfailing inability to compromise, the essence of this clause is not being echoed in our current political state.
Many will argue that the Democrats caved in on certain aspects of their initial proposition, like the seldom understood notion of a public option, in order to appease the Republican party and perhaps garner some of their support.
It was obviously insufficient.
The blame goes both ways. The Republican Party needs to realize the healthcare system in this country is broken. Understanding this, they should have been more proactive in suggesting alternate ideas for improving the situation. The Democrats should have listened to criticism and seen it as provisional suggestions that would be necessary to achieve their most basic task: Giving the people what they want.
Instead, the sides point fingers endlessly, accusing their counterparts of malfeasance.
While Obama does have a reason to feel accomplished, having succeeding in his largest domestic goal, he should realize that it is merely a Pyrrhic victory and anything that divides our country is not worthy of such celebration.