The "ghost" of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act is reportedly haunting the GOP and Republicans while the Democratic Party is still working out the approval of its $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act.
Newsweek said that divisions within the Democratic Party continue while facing their need to pass the said social spending and infrastructure bill. The Build Back Better Act's overwhelmingly high amount is a primary concern between "progressives and moderates" along with some of the measures indicated in it such as climate change.
As per the media outlet, the Democrats intend to have a final version of the Build Back Better Act for its budget reconciliation process so that they don't need to get the approval of the Republican party to have it passed. This is an option they are considering since no Republican in Congress is expected to actually approve it. As such, a solid Democrat vote is needed to push through with the bill.
Last Month, the United States government was reported to be running out of funds to pay its debts and is threatened with a government shutdown unless the debt ceiling is raised through bi-partisan support. The Republicans expressed non-support of the debt ceiling raise out of previously warning the Democrats about its possibility because of the excessive government spending. The Democrats, did not listen, and so the Republicans told them to vote for the debt ceiling raise among themselves.
Accordingly, the division happening now is likened to a "ghost" being similar to what took place in 2010 for the Affordable Care Act or the Obamacare, since it pertained to two bills introduced by former President Barack Obama. The Obamacare passed Congress solely from the support support of the Democratic Party, despite 34 Democratic Representatives opposing it.
The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act is the second bill that 2010 that was similarly passed by the Democrats to amend Obamacare through budget reconciliation.
The same scenario is happening for the Build Back Better Act which is being required by House Democrats to be linked up to a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bipartisan bill or they will not vote for it. The bipartisan infrastructure bill already passed the Senate.
Cornell University Associate Professor of Government David Bateman agrees on the similarities of the Obamacare and the Build Back Better Act. He pointed out that the similarities lie in the use of the reconciliation process and the divisions it has created within the respective political parties.
"Both passed or will pass along straight party lines, partly through use of a reconciliation process that lends itself to being portrayed as using 'arcane' procedures to 'railroad' the opposition," Bateman said.
"Both revealed considerable divisions among Democrats, in each chamber and between chambers. All this, when combined with near Republican unanimous opposition, provides a foundation for Republicans to attack them being extreme. And both legislative fights had or have looming elections hanging over them, the outcome of which has the potential to massively alter Democrats' calculations," he added.
In addition, Bateman also identified the differences of the two legislations. The Obama package, he said, is "polarizing" since it laid out a "clear policy." The Build Back Better Act, on the other hand, is an "abstract" since it merely contains a "collection" of "priorities."
"Most voters still don't really know what the BBB is all about. I suspect that's a feature rather than a bug," Bateman said.
"To a greater extent than the ACA, which had a clear policy core, the BBB is just a collection of policy priorities. When you polled people about what was actually in the ACA, people liked everything but the mandate. But the image of the bill swamped the specifics," he added.
Bateman elaborated that the Build Back Better Act, though containing renowned "individual policies," nevertheless present a "broadly salient image" of what it is really about.
"That's not a surprise: it was a free college and climate change bill until a few weeks ago, and now is a parental leave and child care benefit bill, and who knows what it will be when negotiations are done," Bateman remarked.
