The hype of President Barack Obama’s promised change is starting to fade throughout America. People want solutions, not change. And as the November midterm elections roll around, it will be interesting to see if the Democrats can keep the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

As Obama’s ratings continue to decline, more and more Americans are unhappy with the way the direction of the country is heading. The way Obama sought to help our economy and address an important issue was to attack health care by reinventing the way Americans go about obtaining it.

Health care reform seemed like a great idea, and with the Democrats controlling the House and the Senate, the bill was rushed through and finally passed. Before anyone had the chance to actually look at the over 2,000-page proposal.

It seemed as if Obama helped solve one of the biggest problems facing America. But looking back, many are beginning to realize Obama’s health care bill was simply not good enough.

Instead of addressing the problem, it will require every American to obtain health care. If not, that person is required to pay some sort of fee. As Americans stress over the rising unemployment rate, many have started to look at the health care bill as a step back instead of a step forward.

When the bill entered the House and the Senate, it received virtually no bipartisan support from the Republicans. The only reason it passed was because of the Democrats’ super majority.

It’s interesting how a president who claims to want to reach out to the other side is OK with passing a bill that had only one party’s support. Many believed the only reason no Republicans voted for the bill was because they wanted to hinder Obama in any way possible, but it’s deeper than that — the bill just isn’t good.

By no means does this bill fix the problem it sought out to address: to increase America’s access to health care by creating more choices, thus decreasing health care costs. Instead the bill looks to infringe on our liberties in that it requires everyone to have health care.

By 2014, most Americans will be required to have health insurance or pay a fine, taking away American’s freedom of choice. The Congressional Budget Office reports that by 2019, the uninsured will decrease by 32 million, thus adding a predicted 18 million Americans to be covered under Medicaid. Medicaid is a welfare program, funded and administered by both the federal- and state-level governments.

The increase of Medicaid-insured citizens would overwhelm an already underperforming program. Moreover, the federal government promises to cover all of Medicaid’s increasing benefits costs over the years, and the states will cover the added administration costs, causing more state budget cuts and more financial worry.

As Obama looks to expand the government’s role through intervention in the economy and our everyday choices, Americans are starting to take a step back and rethink how much faith we have in our government. Although this bill aims to cut the national debt and supply people with jobs in the future, people want results now.

Without the majority, mediocre bills with limited bipartisan support, like Obama’s health care bill, will not cut it. Currently, the health care bill sits in the hands of the Supreme Court, which will decide if it’s even constitutional. This has Democrats going into the November elections saying, ‘Oops.’

Roman Acosta is a junior political science and philosophy major. His column appears weekly, and he can be reached at rgacosta@syr.edu.

Published on October 20, 2010 at 12:00 pm