A major part of President Trump’s campaign was his promises to provide a better alternative to an ailing Obamacare. Last week his first major legislative effort to make good on those promises was thwarted, not by opposition Democrats, but by a coalition of hard-line Republicans calling themselves the Freedom Caucus.
These Republicans, while among those most opposed to Obamacare, voted against the first real chance at a replacement in more than six years. Sen. Rand Paul, who backed their opposition, denounced the proposed healthcare plan by dubbing it “Obamacare-lite.” The bill wasn’t conservative enough for them and didn’t go far enough in rolling back Obamacare’s sweeping governmental intrusions into the healthcare sector. So they opted for … Obamacare to remain. They couldn’t have everything, so they chose nothing. It’s been a repeated theme for these descendants of the Tea-Partiers, who have been characterized by their strong commitment to conservative principles and fierce opposition to the Democratic party as well as fellow Republicans who work with them.
My colleague Bryce Wilson recently hailed these hard-liners as a needed opposition to Trump, and I agree to some extent. The Freedom Caucus may have actually done something good by preventing a momentous piece of legislation from being rushed through without sufficient discussion and feedback, but they cannot expect to hold every bill hostage to their lofty conservative ideals. Compromise, not obstructionism, is the name of the game in our political system. If enough lawmakers refuse to play it, they become a wrench in the works, grinding legislative productivity to a standstill. The government shutdown of 2013 is a textbook example of this. For some, being this agent of chaos is an appealing position, and it is certainly a more powerful one than participating in compromise, but it goes against the purpose of being an elected representative.
The problem I perceive with many of these hard-line Republicans is that they don’t have a realistic understanding of their options. Their primary consideration of presented bills seems to be against their ideal bills, which are likely too radical to pass, rather than against the negative status quos that will persist in the absence of passing anything. It’s a binary, all-or-nothing mindset that leads to no progress being made at all.
With regards to the recently proposed healthcare bill, I do find its 17 percent approval rating rather dismal. We are a democratic republic, so in general, our lawmakers should be reflecting the will of the people, not ramming through a deeply unpopular piece of legislation. They have built-in incentives not to: elections.
However, given the state of our political situation in general, and the incredibly complex and dysfunctional realm of healthcare in particular, there’s not going to be a widely popular solution even though a solution is necessary.
To give a sense of where our country is on the issue of healthcare, a Gallup poll last May found that 80 percent of Republicans and only 25 percent of Democrats want to repeal Obamacare, while 79 percent of Democrats and only 16 percent of Republicans want to keep Obamacare. A vast divide exists between the two parties on the issue.
Yet between these two diverging camps are 20 million people who got healthcare under the ACA, especially under its pre-existing condition provision. We can’t in good conscience leave these people in the lurch, even if it’s politically expedient. The best healthcare system for our country, one that makes sure everyone can get good coverage for a reasonable price while still retaining the flexibility and consumer choice of privatized healthcare, is not going to completely please many people.
But sometimes doing the right thing is unpopular. Sometimes what people need is different than what they want, or their short-term interests conflict with their long-term interests. There are just not going to be many bills in these troubled times, especially in the complicated but crucial area of healthcare, that will be able to appeal to both parties, or even everyone in one party. But hard-line groups, whether left or right, that are unwilling to make constructive compromises, only make this problem worse. For us to break out of the legislative dysfunction that has characterized American politics for the last few years, our lawmakers must be willing to compromise.