Obama Care Reform

The United States budget is in major need of reform. Each year the country plunges further into debt due to poor money management and ineffective programs costing the country billions. A large portion of the annual budget is comprised of entitlement programs, almost all of which are overpowered and wasteful. The three main ones are The New Deal, The Great Society and The Affordable Healthcare Act. While the intent of these initiatives were to aid those, their effects in reality are just the opposite, and many of them oppose the intent our founding fathers had for America. The New Deal was a series of pension programs implemented by FDR from 1933-1938 in order to fix the extreme loss of economic advancement and personal growth of everyday
citizens inflicted by The Great Depression. The most popular two were the work relief and social security programs. Unemployment rates dropped five percent by 1940, and from 20% to 15%, and the elderly enjoyed their retirements. However, it was the second world war that saved the economy. With women and children working, the unemployment rates were only 3%, but many people use this statistic to support medicare and its continuation. In reality, The New Deal brought more harm than good. It added $236 billion to the already in America’s debt, an astounding 1,048% increase, and today, the issue is no better. Since 2010 with the retirement of many baby boomers, Social Security cash expenses have exceeded cash receipts, and statistics say the Social Security reserves will likely be fully depleted by 2034. In a cruel twist of irony, while these programs were created to push the US out of a depression, it is currently pushing her toward one. The Great Society was another entitlement program, instituted by President Johnson in 1965. Its purpose, according to Johnson, was to “eliminate poverty and social injustice,” and so Medicare and Medicaid were born. They provided beneficial short term effects, giving financial assistance to citizens over 65 by paying an average of 85% of their medical bills and financially supporting the poor, especially single mothers. However, the long term effects on society were harmful in several different ways. Medicare dissuaded people from saving up for retirement, since the pensions would be there nevertheless. It created another class of people dependent on these programs, further cementing them in poverty. Moreover, these programs severely harmed the family structures of poor and minority households. Medicaid paid women more for children born out of wedlock, stemming from the idea that unwed women need more assistance. But this backfired, encouraging unwed motherhood because it was now an economic advantage. This led to generations of children growing up without fathers, which time and time again has proven to be detrimental to the livelihoods of the children. The percent increase is disheartening. By 1970, out of wedlock births in minority families grew to 35% compared to 22% in 1960, and as of 2010 it is 62.9%. Although there are other factors at play here, there is no doubt that The Great Society Programs negatively effected not only the economy, but also society. The Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2012 by the Obama administration and known as Obamacare, is the most recent program implemented by the federal government.
Its goal was to control healthcare costs and ensure that every citizen owns health insurance, however 32 million people still remain uninsured and the amount of money families actually save is 60% less than was promised. Most of its mandates are illogical as well. Women who are too old to have children are still required to pay for maternity coverage. Furthermore, it eliminated competition America thrives on between healthcare companies, which caused coverage prices to skyrocket rather than drop. Not only is this act not fulfilling its promises and further increasing America’s debt, it is also unarguably unconstitutional. According to The Tenth Amendment, all powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states and citizens, but the imposition of an individual mandate requiring every citizen to purchase health care is a supreme overreaching by the government by creating law from the bench. The excuse used by the supporters of Obamacare is that it is an exercise of the federal government's expressly delegated power to regulate commerce among the states. However, this is not an example f regulating commerce in the slightest, rather this program forces people into commerce under pain of a financial penalty. The constitution does not give government power to force people to buy a product
period under any circumstance, but nevertheless those in power always try to overstep their bounds. No matter one’s opinion on these issues, they must admit America’s federal debt is a serious issue.
Entitlement programs, especially Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and The Affordable Care Act must be reformed in order to begin to fix the deficit issue. They comprised a third of the national budget in 2014, which is double that of ten years before. But steps can be taken such as raising the Social Security age since modern life spans are longer, and completely doing away with mandated coverage. The goal should be to make poverty more escapable, not less miserable. Furthermore, the US must resist the social democracy mindset that Europe has adopted, because in such a society each entitlement becomes a right and everything can become an entitlement. Citizens must keep the healthy governmental skepticism, for a government that can give you everything can also take everything away. Ultimately though, these programs have gained such a significant stronghold on society is because the church is falling short in its duties to care for the poor and less fortunate. Only by stepping up as Christians allowing God to work through us, can we truly make the best impact and help those in
need.