PUBLISHED BY EL NUEVO HERALD ON OCTOBER 04, 2013
Faced with a changing economic world, where competition is increasing and resources are dwindling, a type of leadership that try to balance these two factors is necessary. In the past, the major economic and social reforms in the U.S. have not been without controversy. Neither is Obamacare.
When on June 8, 1934, Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed to Congress the creation of Social Security, a group of Republican senators asked the then Minister of Labor, Frances Perkins, if that was socialism. Mrs. Perkins, who was then the first woman in a presidential cabinet, said no. She not only sponsored the Social Security Act. So did the minimum wage laws and unemployment compensation.
Once the Social Security became law in 1935, its implementation meant a gigantic task; in 1936 and 1937, 35 million registered, employers and employees.
To date, the Roosevelt administration had not yet overcome the great economic crisis of 1929, inherited from Republican President Herbert Hoover. Thus, registering for Social Security had to be done by mail.
The economic recovery of the era also brought measures that regulated banking, as several banks were accused of fraud and largely blamed for the crisis. That's when the FDIC fund protection for bank depositors and SEC or the commission to regulate the operations of the stock exchange, arise.
To 1964, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson argues that retirees 65 years and old can not carry their medical expenses. That's when he proposed the creation of Medicare and then Medicaid for low-income or disabled.
Senator Barry Morris Goldwater nominated by the Republicans for the presidency in 1964, said: "If our pensioners get paid by their medical expenses, why not pay them well housing, food, holidays, liquor and cigarettes?" Of course, before such comments Goldwater lost the election to Johnson.
In 1965, Medicare was approved by Congress and also was a major work effort to enroll more than 20 million beneficiaries in the next three years.
In 1995, Republican Robert Dole, running for president in 1996, declared proudly: "I was one of the members of the House to vote against the creation of Medicare in 1965." Of course, Dole lost the election to Bill Clinton.
Apparently, the fact of opposing major social reforms consistent with the course of history only makes losing presidential elections.
At present, the government of President Barack Obama is engaged in implementing health care reform known as Obamacare. As usual, Republicans oppose. They have already achieved partial government shutdown and threaten to block an increase in the debt ceiling if Obamacare is not slow and / or modify its implementation. However, the project is legally in effect and will not stop.
As we saw in the past, Obamacare will not be an easy task, nor was the Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Coincidentally, we see that Obama inherited a crisis from Bush, as Roosevelt inherited from Hoover. We also see it as Obamacare have labeled as socialist project. The truth is that Obamacare is a hard work, who will gradually adjusting mechanisms to correct their mistakes.
Really, the only historical error will oppose Obamacare. There is no surer way of losing elections.
BENJAMIN F. DeYURRE
Economist and Journalist
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