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During his first year in office President Obama decided to tackle a problem that had frustrated previous presidents: universal healthcare. Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton had all proposed plans for a universal health insurance program, but none of them were able to make them part of American law. From 2009-2010, the U.S. Congress debated the feasibility of having a universal healthcare system and in March 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, into law. President Obama’s push for universal healthcare was assisted by the Democrats having a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a majority in the House, but opposition to the ACA from voters played a role in giving the Republicans control of the House in the 2010 midterms. After several years of planning, the ACA has begun its rollout, but extempers are likely aware that elements of this rollout have been botched, notably on the government’s healthare.gov website which is supposed to a portal for citizens of thirty-six states to shop for health insurance. President Obama has also used his executive powers to delay mandates in the law, which are currently being challenged in the court system as a usurpation of legislative authority. Due to the politics of the ACA and questions about its implementation, extempers will be handling questions about the ACA for seasons to come.
The ACA has been the subject of many rumors, misinformation, and distortions since it was formulated and passed into law. This confusion about the law has made implementation difficult and made it difficult for President Obama to rally public opinion behind the law. This confusion has also affected extempers, who may be unsure about the intentions of the ACA and what it does. This topic brief will not stake out a political position on the ACA because it is Extemp Central’s belief that these topic briefs should provide you with enough information to reach your own conclusions. Instead, this topic brief will break down the reasons why the ACA was implemented, what the ACA does, arguments and complaints made by liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party over the legislation, arguments and complains made by conservatives and libertarians in the Republican Party over the legislation, and provide some tips for handling future questions on the ACA. It is our hope that after reading this brief you will have a better understanding of the ACA and be more confident when speaking about it in future rounds.
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It has been a very tumultuous year in Venezuelan politics. In March Hugo Chavez, who governed the country for fourteen years and attempted to create a vibrant socialist movement in Latin America called Bolivarian Socialism, died of cancer and his successor Nicolas Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist, barely won the presidency in a disputed April election. In the midst of high crime rates and poor economic problems, Venezuela held municipal elections for 337 mayoral seats and 2,435 city council officials on December 8th. The opposition, named the Democratic Unity alliance (MUD), called for voters to reject members of Maduro’s Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and turned the election into a national referendum. The election result ended up mixed, as PSUV won a higher percentage of ballots cast for its candidates, winning 49-43%, but the MUD won control of five of the country’s most populous cities, which include the capital city of Caracas. The next round of national elections are not scheduled until 2015 and the opposition are hoping to recall Maduro from office by 2016. However, the immediate result of the municipal elections may give Maduro some breathing room to consolidate his grip on power and handle Venezuela’s looming economic problems, which could impair the advancement of Bolivarian Socialism next year.
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