Congress
Democratic presidents have been trying to pass health care for many years but have failed every time. It seems now that congress is closer than ever in passing reform. The problem in passing reform is usually the republican party who never try to pass reform when they have the majority in congress and always try to block it when the democrats have the majority in congress. The election of Minnesota representative really helped the democratic congress in passing health care. However, the death of Ted Kennedy and the election of Republican Scott Brown made the Minnesota representative’s election not as important as it once was.
• In 1994 Bill Clinton tried vigorously pass health care reform, but the republican controlled congress stopped it from happening. Now 16 years later, President Obama has come further than any other president in passing health care reform. A bill has passed both houses of congress but the issue has now come to a halt due to the republican party spewing out false information to the general public, which changed the people’s opinion about the issue.
• Minnesota representative Al Franken claimed during his campaign that one of the most important issues to him was health care reform. The Minnesota representative was a fierce advocate for change in the health insurance industry even before he was elected into the Senate. He was the host of a liberal radio talk show and health care reform was often a topic of debate on the show.
The Minnesota representative is not the only fierce advocate for health care reform. Most of the democratic party is in favor of it. However, there are some democrats that are basically bought into office by the health insurance companies and they have no choice but to do everything in their power to block any reform bill from passing. Joe Lieberman, for example, originally tried to block a vote on the bill. It is unheard of to have a member of congress to block his own party from voting on legislation that they sponsored. The health care debate has really shown how corrupt some politicians are. They have made affordable quality health insurance for Americans look like a socialistic plot for the government to own people’s lives and to kill off the older population with “death panels”. None of this is true, but the republican party figures since they don’t have the facts on their side, they might as well use fear into coaxing Americans into believing them. It would not be the first time they did this.