Government works best when it takes small steps. Small steps are the result of honest debate and compromise. A great example of government taking a step too large is the Affordable Care Act. The “Just pass it and we will figure out what is in it later” is a sorry commentary on the then (and now) Speaker of the House, especially in light of her comments about holding up the stimulus legislation prior to the 2020 election, “the devil is in the details”. Which is it? Pass legislation that everyone is ignorant of or get into the details of all legislation? You don’t get to pick and choose.
What should the government have done differently than the ACA? The answer is start small, find something that everyone can rally behind. For example, pre-existing conditions. It does not take a Fulbright Scholar to figure out why the insurance companies do not want to cover pre-existing conditions, so let’s cover it under Medicare/Medicaid. This legislation fast tracks through Congress and all members of the House and Senate are heros. After the Congress gets pre-existing conditions behind them…move on to well care for children. Who can say no to that? You just slowly go down the line one small step at a time until you get the job done. Once you get the ego of signature legislation (ACA) out of the way, real progress can be made. No one has to worry about a bunch of convoluted legislation because each bill is targeted. “Pass it and we will figure out what is in it later” never gets said and the Speaker doesn’t look like an idiot.
Unfortunately, today’s Congress has either forgotten how government should work or just doesn’t care. They act like petulant children when they don’t get their way…stomp his or her foot, pout and call everyone who won’t go along with them bad names. Congress does not understand the concept of compromise anymore. If you don’t agree with the Party in power, so what? They just use sneaky means to get what they want. I had a four year old that did that. Fortunately, the child out grew it. Since our elected representatives generally act like children, why don’t we let one Party break the candy bar in half and let the other Party pick which half they want. Worked for my kids, maybe it will work for the children in Congress.