The Fate of the Health Bill, Essay Example

Rhetoric Takes Center Stage to Decide the Fate of the Health Bill

The Health Bill initiated by president Barrack Obama could be one of his big dreams for America portrayed in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father. A very grand one, but nonetheless one that cannot entice even a dozing Republican. Indeed, the proposed bill is a package that most lower and middle earners would dream of, literally. In this regard, the ambitious plan to provide affordable health care to the majority of poor Americans was seen as one of the new administration’s major undertaking addressing the common man’s needs.

However, it was a painful pill in some quarters of affected stockholders, especially the insurance industry and conservative lobbyists. The New York Times on 15 March reported that ‘Americans United for Life,’ an anti-abortion group, has unveiled a major advertising campaign aimed at pressuring influential lawmakers to oppose the motion when it gets to the house. The pro-life lobby wants the bill to restrict access to abortion services before they could support. Considering the signals coming from the Republican side, it is clear that they are reasoning from the activists’ point of view: life first, health second. Even the church has thrown in its weight to oppose it for fear that abortion will be boosted by the controversial health bill. Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, President of The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reiterated that the health bill unless serious moral issues were addressed, then the health bill must be rejected. Perhaps as a last kick to gain ground, Obama has resorted to the rhetoric haranguing that took him into the Oval Office. On Monday, March 15, he was in Strongsville, Ohio, trying to appeal to our emotions and reason.

Rhetoric is the most effective way through which people use language to persuade, convince, gain favor, dissuade or spread propaganda. After his fluent ride into office, literally speaking, Obama is at it again, this time putting his talents into political salesmanship to sell a health package that has been clawed at by vicious activists and politicians. One strategy that Obama has successfully employed to sail over political tides is pathos, which appeals to people’s emotions, passions and feelings. It softens their positions, touches on the soft spots of their hearts and wins their sympathy. In his campaign speeches, he was smart at preying on the emotions of the American blacks with expressions like: “People shouldn’t be denied opportunities and be condemned to live in poverty because of the color of their skin….I belief we can change it…We can live our dream, The American dream…..Oh yes we can!” It was really  a clever way of making them reflect on their misery, if any, blame it on an unfair administration and see hope in their darling black kid. And you most probably remember a lady crying during his acceptance speech. Well, the speech was designed to have such effects. He did the same in Strongsville, this time knocking on the hearts of the poor, the poor and the dying. He pricked at our tender  sensitivities by drawing sympathy to a sick woman who can’t afford to pay for her health insurance. In his speech, the New York Times writes that Obama had sought to bolster the deal within Congress and the American public by focusing the poor patient, a self-employed woman who cannot meet her health bills due to leukemia. In his style of touching eloquence, he narrated that the reason why Natoma was not around that day was that she was lying in hospital fighting for her life. He also reminded the crowd that she was due for a month long chemotherapy treatment but, uh, she is in such a pathetic financial limbo such that the chemotherapy will not take place after all. You can imagine who will be guilty if she dies as a result. ‘Today if you hear his voice,’ the somber mood of the audience seemed to echo, ‘don’t harden your heart!’ It was a plea that would penetrate into anyone who still posses even the smallest shred of their human heart.  Not even Representative John Boccieri, who said ‘No’ last years will think of Natoma lying unconscious in her death bed and say it twice.

The second strategy is logos: using logic and reason to make a convincing argument in favor of a preferred position. You begin by stating facts, explaining correlations, highlighting similarities and differences, interpreting situations and then drawing conclusions strongly supported by the premises. During the campaign for instance, the one -and unfortunately only reason- McCain thought he deserved the presidency was because of the terrorist threat against America. He tried to make everybody else reason that “Oh, he is a war veteran and knows how best to deal with hardcore terrorists. Hasn’t he been to Saigon? The other guy is just a kid with a sweet mouth and big dreams.” Unfortunately, every American had a dream, except one soldier. Obama, on the other hand, hand a strong case and convincing reasons as to why he was the right man. He promised change, one that Americans can believe in. This health bill that the republicans are intent on frustrating seems to part of that change- and by extension one that they never shared. Obama is calling the nation to heed the voice of reason once again. He steered clear of politics and called upon lawmakers to consider their duty to the people. He turned the debate away from party politics, and reminded his fellow democrats that the lives of Americans were threatened. He challenged the Democrats to prove their mettle in leadership by supporting the bill. In a more fervent tone aimed at law makers as much as it targeted the cheering multitude, he said: “The American people want to know if it’s still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future…..waiting for us to see what’s the best thing for America and then do what’s right” (Stolberg 2010). The best thing really, is not letting Natoma die because some people can’t see the positive (aesthetic?) side of flushing out a bothersome fetus.

This is what Cardinal Gorge observed: that the bill promotes federal funding of and the government’s support of abortion services. The man of the cloth’s holy conscience was enraged with what he termed as the intentional termination of a human prototype waiting on the queue to start life proper on this side of the world upon birth. Now, even the Republicans are not blind to the stakes, and so they have consistently voted in the way they believe God would have voted if he was a senator. At the same time, they are conscious of the millions of votes in the hands of conservatives. After a fledgling start in the house, the bill it is still tottering with no clear indication of making it through Congress.

Thirdly, people use ethos- character, position and integrity- as proof of credibility and source of power to speak with authority. When you pick an article and notice that it’s written by a research professor, then you start thinking that everything in it could be true. Just the same way a dream by Obama’s father makes sense, simply because it is told by a man who became president regardless everything else. Suppose you went to church and the person to deliver the sermon introduced himself: “Hey, guys, my name is Hussein Rashid, until recently an inmate at the Guantanamo Detention Camp. It’s my pleasure to stand here before you today…” You will most likely look around to be sure that you are actually in church and in the right company.

And Obama is not lacking the right people to give his campaign some clout. The president of the Service Employees International Union was one of the speakers who warned that “in the fall elections, the union would back independent challengers against some House Democrats(like John Boccieri) who vote against the health care bill” (Stolberg 2010). Hopefully, Representative Michael E. McMahon from Staten Island and Brooklyn will change his mind, because such news is not healthy for a politician.

All said and done, the bill’s fate seems to hinge on how well the opposing parties manage to talk support into their camp. For Barrack, it is going to take more than a brilliant dream to make it. It is again one of those times when rhetoric does the trick.

Works Cited

Stolberg Sheryl G. Obama Tries to Personalize the Health Care Bill. The New York Times.

15, March 2010. Retrieved 16, March 16, 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/health/policy/16health.html?ref=todayspaper

The New York Times. Barrack Obama’s Acceptance Speech. August 28, 2008.  Retrieved 01 March 1, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/us/politics/28text-obama.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1