Conflicts in Institutions President Obama and the Health Care Debate

Kirk Lohbauer

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Fitzgerald, Keith

Keywords

Health Care, Interest Groups, President

Area of Concentration

Political Science

Abstract

In 2009, President Obama undertook the major task of trying to revamp the American health care system. In doing so, President Obama dealt mainly with interest groups, Congress, and the public. An observation of how the President chose to interact with these groups indicate that the presidency in currently in transition with interest groups becoming more important in order for presidents to achieve their goals. This institutional change of increased interest group participation is directly conflicting with President Obama�s mantra of change during his campaign, which made it difficult for the President to be completely effective during the healthcare debate. Ironically, Barack Obama, who has been hailed for his oratory skills, was suddenly caught without a message, and therefore contributed very little towards being the public face of the health care legislation. After a few missteps, the President was able to compose a message and control the debate at towards the very end. This turnaround certainly helped in making sure that the health care bill became law, but since the President did was not able to reconcile his different roles earlier on in the debate, there were dire consequences in the final legislation, and there likely will be consequences felt in the coming 2010 elections. So, while the President was successfully able to pass sweeping health car reform, he did so at a large cost, all of which has yet to be felt.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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